


Until the End

by BloodWolf13



Category: RWBY
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Dark, Heavy Angst, Implied Relationships, My First Work in This Fandom, Not A Fix-It, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Post-Volume 7 (RWBY), Torture, Unreliable Narrator, Violence
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-15
Updated: 2020-10-09
Packaged: 2021-03-06 15:47:34
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 5
Words: 21,034
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26481391
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BloodWolf13/pseuds/BloodWolf13
Summary: Salem has arrived in Atlas, Ironwood has order their arrest, Neo stole a relic, and they are going down to Mantle. Ruby thinks the situation is bad, but things can always get worse. With Salem, Grimm, Cinder, Neo and so many enemies roaming the city what will be their fate?
Comments: 24
Kudos: 21





	1. A New Day

It was the middle of the morning and the normal blue atlesian sky was black. Dark clouds had replaced the blue sky, casting an unforgiving darkness over Atlas and Mantle, with red lighting appearing every so often to reveal the silhouettes of flying Grimm. It was one of the most terrifying sights Ruby had ever seen. What made it worse was the knowledge that Salem was there hidden somewhere in the clouds, waiting for the perfect moment to strike.

Ruby couldn’t help but wonder if the perfect moment wasn’t now. Ironwood was stuck in his paranoia, his forces exhausted from fighting Grimm, and from getting knocked out by her team. The city of Mantle was frightened by the dark silhouettes of the Grimm, making it a miracle they had stayed up there.

Or maybe not, since Salem was here controlling them. A primordial part of Ruby was triggered by this. The Grimm were known for being creatures of pure destruction, incapable of reason. Only gaining patience for the perfect time to destroy and getting better at killing. Nothing else stopped them…until now. Until Salem.

How had she managed that? The Grimm were created by the God of Darkness. Logically being cursed with immortality didn’t give her this ability. Maybe when she had fallen into the pools she had became part Grimm and being so old made the other Grimm listen to her? Or was it some type of magic? A bit of both perhaps.

Ruby wished she could ask Jinn for more information.

Speaking of Jinn, they should have at least used the final question when they had gotten the lamp back from Ironwood. If only so Salem’s faction could not ask a question. Any question Salem could ask would be a killer for them. One of the worst ones was where to find the hidden Beacon relic. Ozpin hadn’t even told them where he had stashed it, another fail safe that was in danger of becoming completely useless.

She wishes she could ask Jinn a lot more that only one question. A selfish part of her wanted to know what had happen to her mother, the whole truth. Another part was too scared to find out the truth, after all Jinn had taken them into a literal trip down memory lane, and nothing was kept from being shown. Not even Salem’s suicidal attempts or their children getting killed in the cross fire.

Jinn would show everything, for better or for worst, and Ruby couldn’t handle seeing her mother dying. Yet, now that Neo had taken the lamp the decision was out of their hands.

She had to be working with Cinder, who once again showed up to screw up another maiden’s transference of power.

It was becoming a theme.

Another thing they had to worry, the Winter Maiden was out in the open. Salem would know Penny was the new Winter Maiden. A massive target would be place on her friends back… history did have a painfully way of repeating itself. They were fighting hordes of Grimm, a fight for the power of a Maiden had occurred, and the Atlas military had become a problem instead of a solution.

Everything went to hell back at the fall of Beacon, and a part of her couldn’t help but wonder who would die this time? Had Penny come back into her life just so she could be reaped away again? Would Oscar become a casualty simply because of Ozpin? Her uncle Qrow last known location was with the Clover the leader of the Ace Ops and Tyrian the serial killer.

It was unfair on how things were getting worse and worse as time goes on. Even what they had accomplished back at Haven was gone. It was an empty victory against Salem.

“…Ruby?” Jaune gently calls out to her. He looks tired, not just physically but emotionally - the battle against Neo must have taken his toll - he looks old. Older than the 19 year old he’s suppose to be. Ruby can’t tell if it’s because of losing the lamp and Oscar or because he’s having flashbacks to the fall of Beacon. He also has a grimace that only shows up when he thinks of Pyrrha’s death.

She smiles softly at him. “Yeah?”

He hesitates for a moment. “What’s the plan?”

A great question, that Ruby has no idea how to answer. Looking at the rest of them they look equally lost. Penny and Weiss are still sitting side by side looking troubled and stress. Gaining the Winter Maiden powers must have been unexpected and Ruby got the feeling there was something missing from the short summary of the fight that Penny given them, but it didn’t matter right now. Whatever had happen during the battle against Cinder - that ended with Penny gaining the powers - was irrelevant.

Penny was the Winter Maiden now.

Weiss looked deadly worried. Ruby could think of dozens of things that she might be worried about. From her sister looking like she had been run over by a horde of Grimm, and in the service of an increasing paranoid Ironwood after failing her mission, to her childhood home being threaten by a literal army of Grimm.

Ren looks distraught and Nora keeps looking at him and opening her mouth as if to reassure him, but lacking the right words. The battle against Neo had taken a tool on team JNR, but Ruby thinks it’s more than that. Ren had liked the systematic order that came from serving under Ironwood, while Nora was hesitant to trust him - especially about Mantle - and kept confronting James’s decisions. With this outcome, Ren had lost a source of stability and although Nora had been right about Ironwood it wasn’t a good thing. Their argument had ended, and in a way or another, both had lost.

Yang and Blake were in the corner sitting side by side having a wordless conversation. Yang looks slightly angry, Ruby got the feeling it wasn’t just because of their fight against the Ace Ops and Ironwood turning on them. She always had problems with authority figures and lies, it got worse when Ozpin kept telling them half truths, and had hit new highs when the full story of the Girl in The Tower came out. Although these days her anger was under better control it could occasionally surface.

Blake was a close book. She had a guarded expression on her face Ruby hadn’t seen since the early days of Beacon. Blake had been hesitant to trust the Atlas military and Ruby couldn’t fault her. Atlas had the worst reputation when it came to Faunus, adding the obvious distaste she had for the entire system of separation between Atlas and Mantle, Blake had doubts in trusting the system from the start.

Maybe that’s why Blake and Yang had gone to Robyn. It was easier to relate to someone who was fighting for the little guy vs. the state installed that seemed to give no second thoughts to the massive city bellow them. Robyn being more willing to listen than James was the reason it ended with a temporary positive outcome.

It sucked they had done this without informing anyone else. It had been another nail in the coffin with their relationship with General Ironwood - although they weren’t the only ones keeping secrets from him - they were the only ones that had done so without informing anyone else, until they had already done it.

Maria just looks out the window with a bleak expression. She was flying around without a specify destination in mind. Ruby couldn’t help but wonder if she had ever seen an army of Grimm so big, if she misses her silver eyes, if she regrets joining them, helping them escape just now. Ruby realizes that for all the time they had spent with Maria over the last few weeks, they still don’t know much about her.

Pietro keeps looking at Penny with both pride and panic. The panic one was easy to figure it out. Finding out that she had become the Winter Maiden was probably terrifying, especially with Salem being in the city after the relics. The pride one was harder. It could be parental pride - after all she had seen it enough times on her father’s face to know the expression - but there was something deeper under that, something Ruby couldn’t read. Again it reminded her of how little she knew Pietro, a man she was putting so much trust into, not only her fate but also her family and friends.

She looks back at Jaune who was calmly waiting for her answer.

“We’ll need to land this ship somewhere in Mantle.” She turns back towards Pietro. “How long before they find out about you high jacking the scrolls and the airship?”

“Normally it would be a few hours…particularly with Salem in the air…it will depend on Ironwood’s priorities. Since Penny is now the Winter Maiden. He’ll send for me… sooner rather than later. First my lab upstairs, then down to my clinic in Mantle.”

“Do you think we have time to go to the clinic and grab supplies?”

“Yes. I have a place in Mantle where we can hide. It was a former research center that went bankrupt, it’s semi-abandon and with the cold I doubt anyone is there.”

Ruby releases a short breath of relieve. “Good. So here is the plan. We go to Pietro’s clinic, grab what we need and go to the center.”

“What about Oscar and Qrow?” Nora asks. “We can’t just leave them.”

“We’ll call Oscar in a minute. His scroll was working last time we check. Qrow is going to be a little bit trickier, since we don’t know where he is…” It hurts Ruby admitting they have no idea where her uncle is, but she powers through. “We have to wait until we get to the safe house to look for him.”

“What about Salem?” Penny asks.

“I don’t know. She is probably in the clouds and until she makes a move…” Ruby trails off. “For now we have to focus on what we can do. Resupply our materials and find Oscar and uncle Qrow.”

“That’s all?” Yang asks incredulous.

Ruby hesitates to answer. What could she say? We have no way to know what Salem plan is, the only thing we know is that she wants to open the maiden vault and take the Staff. Everything and everyone standing in her way might be wiped out. Plus, the mess with Ironwood had literally left them wanted by the authorities.

“It’s the best I have so far…”

“That’s not enough…Ruby…Salem is _here_.” Yang replies with a touch of fear in her tone.

“I know, but we have to go step by step. Qrow and Oscar are missing. We are literally without any other allies. Ironwood has abandoned Mantle and placed us on his most wanted list. We have no information, no allies, and no resources. We need to start with the basic and build from there. It’s our best option.”

No one looks trilled by that, but they can’t really deny the situation they find themselves in.

“What about team FNKI or someone in Mantle they could help. Plus, Robyn is probably not happy with Ironwood’s decision.”

Before Ruby can reply, Ren looks up. “Well since you seem to know Robyn and the happy huntresses so well, maybe _you_ can get in touch with them.” Ren spits out in an unusually angry tone.

Yang not liking his tone gets up angrily. “What’s that suppose to mean?”

Ren stands up. “It means you and Blake made a decision to go look for them without even considering what it might mean for the rest of us.”

Yang’s gaze hardens. “We did the right thing…”

“So what?” They all were taken back by his tone, while Ren wasn’t screaming his tone of voice was angry. For the last two years Ruby could count in one hand the number of times she saw Ren get this mad. “You went behind all of our backs. I’m not discussing if it’s right or wrong. I’m angry we didn’t even know about this until it screwed us.”

Blake intervenes trying to calm him down. “Wait a minute, Yang and I aren’t the only ones who went behind Ironwood’s back. We all had hidden the truth behind Salem…”

“We did lie about Salem, but you want to know the difference? Ruby lied to Ironwood when all of us were in the room with her. After when we voiced our doubts about the decision she listened. For better or worst it was a group decision to take accept the consequences of the lie. I didn’t even know there would be consequences for this, until our faces were on the most wanted scrolls.” Ren spits out.

Ruby seeing them getting angry intervene. “Enough! Yang, Ren take a deep breath and sit back down.” They both look like they wanted to say something, but Ruby didn’t give them the chance. “It doesn’t matter. Ironwood snapped. He’s willing to leave an entire city filled with civilians to fight off hordes of Grimm. Maybe it was the lie about Salem, or Robyn, or Cinder, or something else. It doesn’t matter right now. We need to focus on what we are going to do _now_ and not what we could have done.”

Maria gives a short bark. “Well said. If you truly want to fight about this at least wait until we aren’t in a sky filled with Grimm. We’re almost at Pietro’s clinic.”

Jaune looks at Ren. “When we get to the clinic I need to have a word with you.”

Ren opens his mouth to reply, but Nora grabs his hand and he freezes. He looks down at her with a mix of regret, anger and pain. He starts to slightly pull away from her, but stops when Nora’s eyes fill with hurt. Something happen there, but it looks more like a private matter than anything else.

Ren looks back at Jaune - his face completely emotionless - and just nods.

Ruby breathes out another sight of relieve. “I’m going to try to call Oscar, and find out where he is.”

She pulls up her scrolls. Thinking about Oscar and Qrow gives her anxiety, Oscar had something he need to do alone. JNR didn’t know what it was, but Ruby had a bad feeling it somehow involved Ironwood. She can’t help but wonder what would happen if he needs help. Would they will be able to assist? They barely left Atlas…what if they had to go back there to get Oscar and Qrow? He’s all alone up there, and they have no way to reach him, if the scrolls go down.

Oscar might be young, but at least he has Ozpin in his head. Based on what happen back in Argus with the plane crash, if Oscar is in danger Ozpin will at least show up to save him, it’s a big relief. Then again Ruby’s confidence in Ozpin these days is lacking more often than not.

Her uncle’s situation worries her even more. He was literally on his way to drop Tyrian in prison. If Clover reacted the same way as the other Ace Ops he would try to arrest her uncle. She trusted Uncle Qrow skill set, but he might get overwhelmed and arrested. After all he has been through she fears what might happen if he’s force to fight with someone he genuinely got along with.

Uncle Qrow’s situation gets even worse than Oscar, because they have no way to reach him. If he got away from Clover, he would still be in Atlas. He had no way of knowing Pietro had hacked their scrolls and got them up and running again, without the military knowing. Qrow would ditch his scroll immediately. He would have to change into a bird and scout out Atlas looking for them.

With Salem in the sky the longer he and Oscar were away the more nervous she become.

She took a deep breath and starts calling Oscar.

It takes less than two rings for him to answer. “Ruby?”

Half the plane gets up and runs to look over her shoulder all saying/screaming a variation of ‘Oscar’.

“Are you okay?”

“What did you have to do?”

“Oscar where are you?”

Her teammates, JNR and Penny were asking questions all over each other. Weiss thankfully had the tact to calm them down. “QUIET. Let Oscar try to at least answer.”

Oscar looked relieved. “Thank you. I’m fine… I’m down in Mantle…”

“How did you get down there?” Jaune asks.

A haunted look passes Oscar’s young face. “It’s kind of a long story…I’ll tell you in person. Anyway I found Qrow and Robyn…”

“HOW?” a chorus is heard.

“Well it’s more like they found me…there was a fight and a prison break… Maybe I should tell you when I see you again…” He looks to the side with worried eyes.

“Are they okay?”

He hesitates again. “They’re…fine...but Clover died.”

“ ** _What_**?” Clover died? How?

“It’s a long story…” he looks again to the side and this time she knows that he’s looking at her Uncle Qrow. She doesn’t even want to think what this must be doing to her uncle. He had formed a close and tight friendship with the Clover (although she and Yang suspected that something more might develop) losing him would have dealt a heavy blow to her Uncle’s mental state.

In particular, since he was already prone to blame his semblance for every little bad thing that happens. Ruby needs to see her uncle. Fast.

“Oscar we are heading to Pietro’s shop to gather some supplies… he knows a place we can lie low for a while. Can you meet us there?”

She hears a female voice from the other side. Oscar turns the scroll slightly and Robyn appears. “Hey pipsqueak, you have a safe house in the Mantle?”

“Yeah…Pietro said it’s an abandon center. We don’t know where it his.” She looks at Pietro who smiles at her. “We’re starting to descend near the shop. Can you meet us there? He’ll tell you more.”

Ruby thinks that if they are going to fight for Mantle they should keep associating themselves with the locals who have been doing the same thing for months. Besides they are low on allies right now, the Happy Huntresses might be the only people who can help with Mantle. They had a tentative alliance with them a few hours ago, but James decisions might have damage it too much.

“Sure thing, but my team will meet us there.” Ruby nods in agreement. “Who’s with you?”

“My team, JNR, Maria, Pietro and Penny…”

Robyn’s eyebrows lift. “Penny’s with you? I thought she was one of Ironwood’s puppets.”

Ruby gets angry on behave of her friend. Penny is her own person, no one owns her, and if tonight has proven anything is that Penny is more loyal to the people of Mantle than the actual people give her credit for. “You were wrong. Did you think that the defender of Mantle would leave Mantle behind?”

Behind her Penny beams at her.

Oscar frowns. “I thought Penny was with Winter. While Winter got the Maiden’s powers.”

“Winter got chosen to be the Winter Maiden?” Robyn’s asks in shock. “The irony…”

“You know about the Maiden’s?”

Oscar answered. “I gave her a very brief rundown of things… We haven’t got the chance to go into the deep details.” He gives her a look and Ruby knows he hasn’t told her the entire truth about Salem. It’s probably smart since the only person who she has ever seen take the whole truth well was Maria. Everyone else had reactions varying from panic to anger. “So Winter is the Maiden?”

“Well she did get chosen, but Cinder appeared…”

Oscar panics. “ _Cinder is also the Winter Maiden_??”

“No. No. Penny is.”

Both Oscar and Robyn look incredulous. “That…that can happen?” Robyn finally asks.

“Yeah why wouldn’t it?” It takes a few seconds for Ruby to remember that Penny is technically a robot and most people wouldn’t associate it with the maiden’s magic.

Maria’s voice breaks the awkward silence that had followed her statement. “We’re landing.”

Ruby turns back to the scroll. “Are you close?”

“Five minutes out.”

“Okay. Enter through the back. We’ll see you there.” She hangs up just as Maria lands.


	2. All Memories Are Dark

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Revelations, reunions, deals and some stories are told.

They are running around Pietro’s shop grabbing anything that could be useful, when Oscar, Qrow and Robyn arrive.

Oscar enters first and he looks rough. JNR told them the battle with Neo had left him exhausted and covered in soot, but he looked even worse than describe. He had this haunted look on his face that Ruby had never seen before, and was walking with the assist of the cane, resembling Ozpin so much that Ruby had a feeling his and Ozpin’s soul were becoming closer and closer. Oscar looks as relieve to see them as they do him.

“Where are the others?”

“In the front…”

Oscar nods and then hesitates. “I’ll give you a moment with Qrow.”

Robyn followed him looking rough. There were a few cuts on her clothes, and she had a stiff walk. She headed to Yang and Blake, but not before nodding towards Ruby. It was a good thing Jaune and Nora had dragged Ren into the back to talk with him. Ruby trusted Jaune to sort out whatever was going on with his team, but given that Ren had clear issues with Yang’s and Blake’s decision, it was better for him to not be here at the moment.

Although Ruby was almost convince that he was projecting some type of anger on to the issue. His pulling away from Nora, the uncharacteristic angry tone, and the frustrating manner in which he explain the lost of the lamp were a clear sign that Ren need time.

Yang left the conversation with Blake and Robyn - while Pietro join in - and came to stand next to her as they took a long look at their uncle.

Qrow out of the trio was the one that looked the worst. Physically he looked the same as the other two, but he had this haunted look on his face she had only seen back when Ozpin’s secrets had been revealed. He didn’t have Harbinger strapped to his back, Oscar did. He was clutching Clover’s bloody pin in his hand, which was broken.

Very softly Ruby approached her uncle with her sister by her side. “Uncle Qrow?” When he turn to them his eyes soften, but the pain was still there. “Can you tell us what happen?”

Her uncle close his eyes for a second, pain radiated from him and he looked seconds away from screaming. He pulls himself together and looks back at them. “Clo- He…got the orders to arrest me when we were on the way to the prison. Robyn didn’t take the news of _Jimmy_ -“he spits the name with a massive amount of hate. ”leaving Mantle to fend for themselves well. Things got out of hand and…we started to fight on the plane…”

He runs a hand through his hair, and grits his teeth. “Tyrian got freed by the fight and crashed the fucking plane.”

“He crashed the plane on purpose?” Yang asks in shock.

“He’s a fucking psychopath…” their uncle spits at the ground. “ I woke up and…Clover…still wanted to arrest me. Robyn was still knocked out so we started to fight.”

Ruby tries to comfort Qrow. “We also had to fight the rest of the Ace Ops.”

He looks up at them a shadow of a smile graces his lips. “You beat the Ace Ops?”

Yang smirks. “Damn right we did. Left them tie down in Ironwood’s office has a thank you gift for the arrest warrant.”

Qrow nods softly at them. “Well done.” He takes a deep breath, and his face hardens. “While I was fighting Clover, Tyrian got free…he showed up for the fight. I attacked him, but Clover kept attacking me…”

“ _What_?” she and Yang ask.

“Yeah… it was already a hard fight…and then with Tyrian in the mix things got worse. He suggested a team up and I fucking took the offer,” His face twists in despair. “I thought since the bastard hadn’t had time to recover that much from our previous fight…I could knock out Clover and then take Tyrian out…”

Her uncle lets out a broken sob, she and Yang both move forward to hug him. It didn’t take a genius to figure out what happen. Somewhere along the line the scorpion faunus had killed Clover.

Her uncle had tears running down his face and was holding them so tight it hurt a little. It took a second for him to calm down. “During the fight I lost Harbinger. Clover caught Tyrian…and I took the chance to punch him. I- It broke Clover’s aura… Tyrian took the opportunity to grab my weapon and stabbed Clover through the back. He ran after that.”

“With Harbinger?” Ruby has a shocked look on her face. She couldn’t think of a worst thing to do. Someone killing a person you care about with your weapon. If that happen with Crescent Rose she would lose it. At least it explains why her uncle wasn’t currently holding his weapon.

“What happen after that?” Yang softly asks.

“Ironwood’s dogs arrived and arrested me and Robyn. They think I killed Clover.” A glass falls to the flow scaring the crap out of them. Qrow takes another deep breath. “We got to the prison and that fucking creep was breaking Watts out. It was chaos…we took advantage of it and left. Stole a ship and heard the news about the army of Grimm in the sky.”

“It’s Salem.”

“I figured. My luck is on a roll today. Anyway we found Oscar in the middle of a bunch of debris…he told us that he had tried to talk with Ironwood. Didn’t tell us what happen, but my guess is it didn’t go well. Told us he wanted to tell all of us. We got your call when Robyn was talking with her squad.”

Oscar and JNR come in to the backroom and look at them. While they gather their final supplies, leaving behind a few motorcycles - much to Yang’s dismay - she fills in Oscar, Qrow and Robyn on what happen.

“I would’ve paid good money to see you knocking out the Ace Ops.” Robyn finally replies.

Ruby smiles “It wasn’t easy.”

“Still, it’s more than…” a beep comes from Robyn’s scroll. “My girls are outside.”

“Guys, gather around.” They all come to stand in front of her waiting to hear her. “I have a plan…I think…”

Some of them chuckle.

“We got lucky in being able to found each other all so quickly. Yet, one of the reasons I think we were able to do it so fast is the atlesian military being so…”

“Disperse?”

“All in Atlas?”

“Focus on Salem?”

She nods “Yes, to all of that. Step two, is going to the research center and see if Pietro can hack into the Atlas mainframe. We need information… and I doubt with all that is going on they have been able to close the…holes Watts explored.”

Pietro looks thoughtful “I might be able to explore some weaknesses in the mainframe. The center was only defunded a few months ago. They took the spare parts for the robots, but left the equipment… If Watts did it I might be able to do it.”

“You’re better than Watts so I’m sure you can do it.” Penny smiles brightly at Ruby’s words. “That brings me to the second part. Robyn?”

The woman turns to her. “What is it?”

“I think we should spilt up for now.”

“Why?” Blake interrupts.

“For two reasons. First, we are a big group already. If we get caught, we _all_ get caught. When we get to the center I was thinking of spitting us up. Team RWBY. Team JNR and Oscar. Pietro and Maria. Qrow and Penny.”

Qrow raises an eyebrow at this “Why me and Penny?”

“The Winter Maiden powers. You’re the only one with actual knowledge about the Maiden powers, we need Penny to start gaining control over them…you’re our best shot.”

Qrow keeps frowning but nods. Ruby continues “The second reason is because we need information about the people down here _and_ the prison break. The happy huntresses know this territory and their faces aren’t in the most wanted posters. They can move better than us down here and faster. Time is of the essence.”

Ruby turns back to Robyn “We don’t know each other well, but I think you have the same goals we do. We want to save Atlas and Remnant. All of it. Not just certain parts. I know Ironwood just betrayed your trust, but…”

Robyn gives out a short laugh “Ruby, your band of misfits got put on the most wanted list, because you refused to leave Mantle to perish. You stood up to Ironwood and put his smug lackeys on the ground. I don’t need a speech. I know where your group stands, and we’ll help you.”

She puts her hand out and Ruby shakes it. Her team looks happy enough with this new development. The others have different levels of satisfaction, but no one looks outright angry about the arrangement. She glances to Ren who seems to be in deep thought. The anger from the ship has disappeared and he looks more contemplative over things. Ruby guesses whatever the talk he had with Jaune and Nora, it helped him process some of what he was feeling.

It’s a good thing. At least one of them is able to process the last 24 hours. In an ideal world they all would have been able to process their feelings, and what had happen, but this is Remnant. Things are far from ideal on a good day, and when Salem shows up any plan goes out the window.

They finish pick the supplies up and split up. Robyn and her crew would look for information down here, while they would go to the center and start prepping things for the fight.

…

They get to the center Pietro told them about. It looks like a warehouse, but it’s mostly boarded and covered in snow. It’s in a part of the town that hasn’t had renovations in months.

It’s ironic, one of the reasons they can successfully hide from Ironwood in Mantle is because he had neglected the city so much. Despite being early in the morning, they hadn’t found anyone while walking in the shadows. The city was a ghost town. The streets were filled with graffiti, litter, and abandon card boxes that Ruby was sure used to hold homeless people. Ironwood’s drones were also missing the man had kept his promise to leave Mantle.

It was upsetting on how little Ironwood had turned out to care about the people he had sworn to protect. It wasn’t just the angle of saving the majority and leaving the rest, it was the fact he had made this decision - whenever consciously or not - long ago. The lack of security, the lack of fixing the streets, the lack of conditions and much more, was heartbreaking.

Ironwood had officially decided to leave Mantle behind hours ago, but the actual choice was made a long time ago.

“Ruby, let’s go.” Penny softly grabs her hand, and pulls her into the building.

It was a big building. Pietro had told them it used to research mechanical parts for some type of robots and was defund a few months before they had arrived. As such, instead of the air of abandonment that plagued the streets outside, this place looked more neglected than abandon. It was cover in dust, but some of the equipment - such as security cameras, a few computers, chairs and similar objects - were still here.

Ruby wonder what would have been the plan for it had all of this hadn’t happen. Would it be reopen and continue to work or would it be left to the elements? The hopeful side of her believes it would be reopen, the downer side reminded of how the streets outside looked, and how ridiculous it would be to reopen a researching center here.

The inside of the building just feels like another mockery of their failures.

Ruby turns to Pietro. “What do we have here?”

“I disabled the cameras outside, we can see from them, but they’ll look offline to the rest of the system. We’re covered. I can try to access the Atlas mainframe from here.”

“So they haven’t covered the backdoors? Even with what happen with Watts?”

“Watts was able to hack into the mainframe from here. It means they hadn’t put in defenses. With him only being caught a few hours ago, I doubt anyone has had the time to fill all of the holes. I can’t promise perfect access, but it will be better than nothing.”

Qrow snorts. “The Atlas military the greatest military in the world can’t keep hackers out of their mainframe. Their entire grand displays of power and in the end they still have the same weaknesses.”

Maria whacks him in the head with her cane. “Let’s hope those weaknesses don’t make the gigantic flying rock fall on our heads and kill everybody. It’s not the time to criticize the military, it’s time for action.”

Oscar looks up to Ruby. “I need to tell you what happen when I went to talk with Ironwood.”

They all turn to him.

“What did he say?”

Oscar’s young face gains a deep sadness to great for his age. “He was down in the vault waiting for Winter. I was walking with Long Memory, he thought I was Ozpin at first…I tried to reason with him, told him I wanted to restore our mutual trust.”

“I take it he didn’t take that well.” Yang’s tone comes out flat.

“No. He told me that only he was willing to do the tough calls…” Oscar describes the conversation in detail, almost word for word. When he got to the point of the end of the conversation he pauses. “I didn’t understand but when he started walking towards me I got close to one of the edges. After he told me to call him General… he shot me…”

“ ** _WHAT?”_**

It was chaos, the entire room was screaming questions at Oscar. He looked overwhelmed by so many questions.

“ENOUGH.” Maria shouts. “I understand you’re upset, I am too, but you need to give Oscar a chance to answer one of the questions you’re shouting at him. Besides it wasn’t the boy’s fault he got shot, go scream at the General.”

The room calms down and Ruby has a strange sense of déjà vu. It’s a situation similar to the one after Jinn’s story. They shout at Ozpin (Oscar), leading to Oscar getting overwhelmed and Maria telling them to back off.

Oscar looks relieve by the lack of shouting, still he hesitates to go further. “It broke my aura and I started falling down here…”

Ruby realizes what happen. “Ozpin showed up?”

Oscar very gently nods. “He woke me up and…I used his power…I used magic.”

A stun and heavy silence fills the room. Jaune puts his hand on Oscar’s shoulder to comfort him. “How?”

“I don’t know. It saved my life…when I got down…he was still here. I had gain new memories, and knew things that I didn’t learn.” He looks sad again. “I think we merge a little more when I used the cane.”

“Is he still around?” Ruby asks cautiously looking at her Uncle.

“Kind of. I don’t know if this will make sense…but he’s still in the back of my mind in the room he lock himself up, but I can enter the room he’s currently on.“

“Do you think it’s because of the union thing?”

“I don’t think we stop merging even when he locked himself inside my mind.” Oscar says this in a guilty and hopeless tone. A part of Ruby realizes than when Ozpin locked himself in Oscar’s head it gave Oscar the chance to believe he had more time as himself. With all that happen, him using Ozpin’s powers, the memories and the mannerisms he has gain, any possible denial he had is gone.

Ruby had always known Oscar was struggling with having Ozpin in his head - it got worse when they had found out the truth about Salem, - but he never talked about it. He preferred to handle things on his own or at least process things on his own. Ruby thinks it’s partially because he doesn’t want to be a burden, but the main reason is Oscar has accepted Ozpin as inevitable.

He’s not happy having this force upon him, but enough time has passed for him to get used to the idea. Still, the lack of choice in the entire process must be maddening, and talking about it doesn’t help Oscar. At least not yet.

A silence falls upon the room as they digest Oscar’s words regarding Ozpin’s coming back, more permanent this time. In the back of Ruby’s mind a thought surges forth.

“Is… Is he talking with you?”

“Sort of…if I talk with him he doesn’t ignore me…after the fall I asked him if he had any idea of how to stop Salem…” He trails of.

“Does he have any idea?”

“Ruby you can’t be serious.” Yang says with a shocked look on her face. “This is the guy who has literally lied to us from day one. We can’t trust Ozpin.”

“I’m not talking about trusting him. Yang…we have very few options here. Ironwood has gone off the deep end, Cinder is out there, Neo has the lamp, and Salem is here. We need all hands on deck…”

“Yeah from people we can trust.” Jaune replies. “The stakes are high here, if we put our trust in one more person and it turns out to be the wrong move… I think humanity might be doomed. Salem will have at least two relics, one of them can lead her to an unguarded relic.”

“I understand that.” Ruby sighs. “I also understand that Ozpin wants to stop Salem more than anyone in this room.”

A beat passes and Ruby let’s her words sink in.

“I’m not happy with Ozpin’s lies… I understand his reason behind them…” She snorts. “Particularly now… after telling the truth to Ironwood made him even more…paranoid. Make no mistake, I still don’t agree with his decisions. I think after a while he started to see his close allies as someone that would turn on him if the truth came out. They would run and hide, or betray him to Salem. That…is something I don’t understand. Does anyone remember what I asked him back in Argus when the train crashed?”

“When?” Weiss asks.

“After he asked me to return the lamp.”

Weiss frowns. “I think you asked him if all that talk about trusting humanity was a lie.”

Ruby nods. “Ozpin stopped believing in the good of humanity. I don’t know when, but somewhere along the line he stopped trusting people with the truth because he believed people would stop fighting against Salem because she can’t be killed. He’s not completely wrong…I mean Lionheart started to work for her, Raven left…”

Yang and Qrow flinch at the mention of Raven, but don’t argue.

“…I’m sure there are others we don’t know. Yet, he stopped believing people would still fight. We are proof that he was wrong. We know the full truth and although we are angry with him for lying to us…we are still here. Willing to fight against Salem.” She looks at Yang and Jaune. “His main goal is stopping her. Jinn show us that. Right now he is the only person who has a deep understanding of Salem and how she works. He could also help us with Ironwood…”

“I doubt that.” Oscar interrupts. “I think one of the reasons James shot me was because he thought I was Ozpin.”

Blake frowns. “Like he thought Ozpin was impersonating you?”

Oscar nods. “Yes. I don’t think he’s very stable right now.”

Most of them snort.

“My point still stands. I think Oz would be helpful fighting Salem now that she is _here_.”

Yang grits her teeth. “And if his plan dooms us all?”

Weiss answers for her. “We aren’t going to do what he dictates. We will evaluate our options and see if any of his suggestions can be fit in a final plan. Considering and hearing _all_ options is an excellent idea. Furthermore, Ruby is right concerning Ozpin motivation on wanting to stop Salem, although he has stopped searching for a way to permanently stop her, it has not impede his fighting. ”

Ruby nods and cuts back in when a few people look ready to protest. “Look. We are all stress and tired, I say we take a break. Search the warehouse for places to sleep and rest. Uncle Qrow?” He looks at her. “Can you and team JNR go out and find more food? Stake out possible escape routes? See if any people need help? See if there are a lot of Grimm here?”

JNR all accept immediately, although they look exhausted they clearly need a fresh air, which is half the reason she ask them. Qrow hesitates for a second, and then Qrow sighs tiredly. “Sure kid. After a day like this I need a drink.”

Her heart breaks at his words, but it doesn’t really surprise her he’s relapsing. Today has been hell for him, for all of them.

Maria strikes him again in the back of the head. “An army of Grimm is at our doors, and your first decision is to go on a binge? You call yourself a huntsman?”

Qrow opens his mouth to protest but Maria is faster. “We’ll talk more about it later. I’m going with you four. After all I’m one of the few people in this room who is not wanted by the military.”

Preparations are made for the short trip. Ruby mostly hangs back with Penny while Jaune organizes his team. Qrow stays besides Maria although he looks deeply unhappy. When Oscar gives back his weapon, Ruby notices his hands shake as he holds Harbinger.

She wants to hold him and tell him everything will be fine, but she doesn’t want to lie. Maybe when he gets back she’ll have the right words, but for now she watches her uncle leave with a heavy heart.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello!  
> I finished checking this chapter faster than expected. So surprise!  
> I did consider putting this chapter and the first together, but I’m trying to do shorter chapters. I originally wanted to do a one-shot fic, but this story isn’t small enough to put in one chapter without being hard to read. So I spilt them up.  
> Next chapter will be either next Friday or Saturday.  
> Thank you for reading this. Beware the mistakes and be nice in the comments.  
> Blood Wolf


	3. We Try So Hard

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Discussions as a team, Grimm appear and a nasty surprise.

An hour passes while they clean up the center. Oscar has fallen asleep sitting on a chair. After getting into a fight with Neo, getting shot by Ironwood, and having Ozpin return, Oscar needed a nap. They all did, but there is too much to do and time is their enemy here.

Pietro and Penny are both working on getting in Atlas mainframe, by the sound of it they are having a little success, which both trills Ruby and makes her gloomy. Only a master hacker (Watts) or a genius (Pietro) would be able to pull this off, but the lack of care or believe that someone from Mantle could do this, shows once again the disparity over both places.

Not only were both systems on different levels - Mantle being out of date with most of Atlas - but it left weak points in both places. Watts needed Jacques codes to close the heating down here, but how did he get to Jacques? By hacking his way into Atlas and then bribing him with the election. Both things he wouldn’t be able to do, or have more trouble doing if the systems were aligned.

She doesn’t blame the General for this. This lack of care, the segregation that exists between the two cities didn’t start with the lockdown. The inequality surrounding them has been building up for years, the lockdown has only aggravated the issue. How long as things been like this? Since the Great War? Longer? It reminds her of Professor Oobleck and his defense of history being the back bone of a society.

Ruby tries to ignore the random questions appearing on the back of her mind, and focuses on her team.

She looks at Blake - who is currently organizing a small space where they can build makeshift beds - and wonders how much this whole situation has affected her. The faunus here are treated horribly, not only in the mines, but also in most open places. Down in lower parts of Mantle the racism isn’t as prevalent, but it’s still more noticeable than any other kingdom Ruby had visited.

She had thought about asking Blake about it, but Blake had just gotten better after Adam’s death. She had a lighter demeanor since the battle at Haven, and when Adam died she started to relax more. Things weren’t perfect, but it was like a wound was finally healed. So Ruby let the subject slip, if Blake wanted to talk she would come to her team, or at least to Yang.

Speaking of Yang, she is helping setting up the beds, and looks frustrated by the slow progress she is making. Her sister has been on the edge since Ruby had made the decision to keep the full truth from Ironwood. Yang doesn’t understand the need to keep secrets like some of the others do. Her mother’s location being kept from her infuriated her for the longest time, and even meeting the woman didn’t make her fully understand why their father and uncle kept Yang away from Raven.

Yang had struggled with Ruby’s decision since minute one, being the most vocal one to protest their course of action. The protests had died down after her sister saw how Ironwood viewed Mantle, she must have understand their apprehension. It also led to the impulsive decision she and Blake had by going to Robyn. A person they knew very little about, and could have turned horribly.

In a way it did, just not with Robyn. James Ironwood couldn’t take the pressure from seeing Salem in…a Grimm version of a scroll? Ruby had no idea what that Grimm was, but the messages it deliver - her arrival, her spies in the city, and more - were the final nail in the coffin. The General did handle the truth better than most, but when it all came into a head he chose to run and hide.

It’s a valid strategy when faced with a stronger army, but when the enemy is an immortal magic being capable of waiting you out, with minions already loose in the city ready to strike, the choice becomes extremely questionable.

The truth about Summer Rose’ death coming out was also painful beyond belief. Ruby might have been the one on the ground sobbing her heart out, but she felt Yang’s body trembling while holding her. Her sister had been hurt by that reveal, but they didn’t have time to process it. Time has a funny way to run away from them.

Ruby looks at Weiss who is looking out the window towards Atlas, and thinks her and Yang aren’t the only who hadn’t had the time to process their feelings. In less than 24 hours, Weiss arrested her dad, gotten put on the most wanted list, found out about Salem arriving with an army of Grimm, and had to let her sister behind when said sister was in a dire condition.

Weiss looks tired, not just physically, but also emotionally. At times her eyes get moist with unshed tears, she holds back. Her hands keep shaking when someone mentions her sister or the Winter Maiden’s powers. Ruby wants to pull her aside and try to talk about it, but there is not enough time.

Qrow, Oscar, Blake, Yang and Weiss are all people who she needs to talk with. All dealing with complicated situations, all need time and attention. They had to run back to Mantle in a hurry, leaving the time to process their emotions behind. Ren snapping doesn’t even feel strange. If anything it’s the fact that only he has blown up, which is weird.

Ruby could take this moment and try to talk with her team about it, but she’s not sure how far it would get. All of the situations they face aren’t easy to talk about, some don’t have a solution the person just needs time to process what has happen, and forcing tired people to pour their heart out can have a devastating effect.

It makes her feel like a bad leader, seeing all of her team struggling and not being able to help. Ruby looks at them and promises that she will talk with them about everything. She won’t stand by and let her family drown when she can try to help them. She will make time for her team no matter what.

However, there is one thing they must discuss, the elephant in the room, Ozpin’s return and what it means. Ruby can already tell Yang is going to be the bigger problem. Her sister had the most problems with Ozpin, out of her team, now that he has return they need to talk. Other people such as her uncle Qrow who has literally been lied to for decades, and Jaune who has held Ozpin responsibly for what happen to Pyrrha, will also have issues with Ozpin.

Later she will have to talk with them, but for now her team takes priority.

“Guys?” they all turn to her. “I need to talk with you about Ozpin’s return and what it might mean.”

She stops and observes their reactions in silence. Yang immediately scowls, Blake and Weiss look more thoughtful, both have their issues with Ozpin, but the lack of anger when it comes to Oz helps them keep a level head.

Blake is the first one to break the silence. “You want to hear if he has plans to stop Salem…right?” Blake glances at Yang who has a permanent scowl and had crossed her arms.

Ruby shallows dryly. “Yeah… I know it caused tension when I brought it up.” She pauses and sits on one of the makeshift beds, the others do the same. “I wouldn’t pretend to know that most of the people in this group have problems with Ozpin…”

“He lies more than he breaths.” Yang adds.

Ruby sighs. “ _But_ , right now those issues have to be ignored…at least for now. We need his help with Salem…” She trails off.

“Assuming he has an idea that can help us…” Blake says.

“We don’t have an idea on how to fight Salem, we have accepted Robyn and her group as an alliance. Why not hear out Ozpin?” Weiss asks.

Yang looks incredulous at Weiss. “How do we know he doesn’t start to play us…look I believe he doesn’t want Salem to win, but he has lied to us…a lot. Even after the battle of Haven with the no-more-lies promise, he kept a lot from us. Hell not only us. He lied to Uncle Qrow for the entire time they worked together. He lied to everybody…even the people in his ‘inner circle’. Do you think anyone else knew the truth? The headmaster from Vacuo? Professor Glynda?”

Yang stands up. “We wouldn’t have _ever_ known the whole truth without Ruby and Jinn. He didn’t want to tell us because he didn’t trust us and now we have to…what let him do it again? Am I the only one who remembers him leaving us alone on the snow and hiding inside of Oscar?”

“Wait…” Ruby interrupts Yang before she starts ranting about Ozpin. “That reminds me. We can’t have people snapping at Oscar for what Ozpin does or says. Uncle Qrow and Jaune both attacked Oscar because of things Oz did. We also can’t snap at him…”

“Ruby I think no one will try to attack Oscar again…” Blake’s ears hackle. “You’re not telling us to treat Oz with kid’s gloves?”

“No.” Ruby quickly adds. “I’m just saying the last time we saw him….emotions were high…”

Weiss makes a sound close to a snort. “We were all stunned with what Jinn had revealed. I would assume now with the time we have to process it, we will have a clearer head and be able to speak with Ozpin…in a calmer manner.”

Blake nods in agreement, but Yang still doesn’t look satisfied. “If we still have problems with him?”

“We’ll talk them out.” Ruby looks at Yang. “We also snapped pretty hard at Ozpin after finding everything out. He was hurt…we were hurt, angry and a million other emotions. If I ask to speak with Oz we have to remind calm and not snap at each other. Salem…you know the enemy is the only one who benefits with that.”

Yang takes a deep breath and sits back down next to Blake.

Ruby is tempted to leave at that, but there is still something she needs to make sure is not forgotten. “If Oz does have a good way to salvage the situation…we’ll have to listen to him.”

Just like that the calm went out the window. Yang stands up and goes look at Atlas through the window, Blake follows her. Weiss expression is stone, she doesn’t give any indication on what she might be feeling.

“Salvage the situation? How is that even possible at this time?” Blake asks while putting a hand on Yang’s shoulder.

“I don’t know but we have to try. You were willing to talk with Robyn, because you believe that she could be reason with. We were willing to listen to Ironwood when we first got here because we believe he wanted to help people. We can’t stop believing in the good faith of people. If the situation has any way of ending well, we have to see every angle, even if that angle is Ozpin showing back up.”

Blake sighs. “The last person we trusted was the General. We all know how well that turned out. Sometimes…even when we do the right thing, the consequences are severe. Not every story has a happy ending.”

Yang turns back to Ruby and looks her in the eye with disappointment. “We’ve put our faith in you back in Argus. We all picked you as our leader, some of us for a lot longer than Argus. You have leaded us since we enter Atlas. You can’t just abandon that now because things got tough. You’re supposed to lead us for better or worse.”

Ruby can’t think of a time when Yang as looked at her like that. She looks at Ruby as if she is a scared child who wants to run because things are hard. It hurts, more than those words. Yet, Ruby knows are sister is not trying to hurt her, she is just scared. She also doesn’t want Oz to come back and lead them again, which leaves Yang feeling frustrated. It’s not a good combination.

Weiss get’s up and stands besides Ruby. “She has. Ruby has had the weight of our choices on her shoulders. She is not abandoning her leadership, she is simply looking at all the options. It’s not a bad thing.”

Things are tense. They are at each other’s throats, which is exactly what Salem wants. Ruby takes a deep breath. “The way I dealt with everything since we’ve arrived in Atlas might not have been the perfect, but I’ve tried to do my best. I never quit, I’ve always tried my best, but I’m not so self-assured to believe I have all the answers, or all my plans will be perfect…”

Ruby trails off feeling the weight of the day once again. Weiss puts her hand on Ruby’s shoulder to comfort her. ”Ruby… if there is too much going on right now, maybe taking a time break might be a good thing.”

“We don’t have time for breaks…Sa…”

She is interrupted by Oscar appearing. It’s eerily watching Oscar walking with the cane in his hand now that they know Oz is back. He looks slightly better now he had a short nap, and fresh clothes. Yet, he should still be sleeping. His face also holds a panicky touch that sends alarm bells through her system.

“What’s wrong?”

“Grimm.” He says. “Not a lot, but there is mild Grimm activity around here. The others aren’t back yet, and they haven’t picked up their scrolls. Jaune texted saying they were going to explore an abandon hole and probably wouldn’t have service, we have to go get them.”

Of course, Grimm. Ruby just rubs her head and thinks about Salem. It’s obvious not her army of flying Grimm’s otherwise they would have been swamped by now. Probably a few Grimm left in the city. They need to be careful taking care of them or they might attract more Grimm, or worse Salem’s attention to their location.

“It’s probably Grimm that were already on the city. Blake, Yang go to the location and see if you can take out the Grimm without attracting more. Blake take the lead on this.”

The cat Faunus of the team was always the best with stealth missions, and Ruby has a feeling her particularly skill set will come in handy in the future.

Her sister and Blake both nod. Ruby turns to Weiss. “We are going to have to split…”

Weiss frowns. “Why?”

“I need you to go get others and bring them here…or to the Grimm. It will depend on how things are. I need to keep scouting the areas especially since its obvious Grimm are out there the people inside the houses are easy targets.”

Oscar cuts in. “I can check the remaining areas…”

Blake sighs. “Oscar no offense, but you still look dead on your feet…”

“So do you.” He argues back.

“Yeah, but we didn’t just fall out of the sky three hours ago.” Ruby replies. “Plus, with Salem close to the city and Ozpin in your head it might be best to…err…not wander through the city?”

His face tightens into a grimace. He has no answer to that.

Ruby rubs her head as she thinks. “We’ll do this. Me and Weiss….”

“Weiss and I…” Weiss corrects.

“We’ll go get the others, but we take a…long route. We’ll check a few critical points to see if things are okay. We’ll find them and meet up with you.” she looks at Yang and Blake, who nod. “Depending on how tired we are…we’ll decide on what to do with the rest. With Grimm still roaming we might have to do shifts to make sure they don’t become overwhelming to the people.”

“What if we tip our location to Ironwood or worst Salem?” Blake asks.

“We don’t have a choice… I mean we came down here to protect the people for better or worse. Besides I don’t think it will take long before Salem makes a move…so this might be not happen…” Ruby trails off in frustration. “We’ll see what Pietro and Robyn can give us before making any more plans. Right now the priorities are those Grimm, protecting the people, and getting the others back here.”

Everyone looks at each other while nodding. It’s not an ideal plan, and it leaves most of their moves in the hands of the opponent, but to be fair they are kind of stuck. They can’t just ignore the Grimm roaming the city and attacking the people to save up strength. If they were going to do that they might as well stay with Ironwood. There is also Salem, who at any moment might launch a full scale attack and leave them in a tight spot.

They have to evacuate the people into somewhere safe, but they don’t know where. Another thing they have to figure out. Their choices suck, but right now they can go out there and fight Grimm.

…

She and Weiss go out to find the others, while Yang and Blake go check out the Grimm situation. Oscar and Penny stay behind with Pietro. Neither was happy about the situation, but they acknowledge that both were the biggest targets on Salem’s list. If either goes out things could get worse and fast.

A nagging thought in the back of her head reminds her that she is also one of Salem’s targets. The Grimm Queen wants her alive for some reason, which is terrifying. Salem isn’t known for wanting to preserve Silver Eyed Warriors, her mother’s death and Maria’s near death experience are prove of that. If Ruby gets capture she fears a similar faith will eventually happen.

It’s funny even if they know Salem wants to capture her since Tyrian show up, the topic has been pushed back into the back. The lack of success from her minions, and the lack of Salem’s presence have allowed Ruby to ignore the topic. Now, she is not sure for how much longer she can keep ignoring it.

Another problem with no solution in sight. Today has been a day full of them. Maybe that why her gut has been screaming at her all day, so many things have gone wrong, that she is just waiting for the next problem to appear around the corner.

“Ruby.” Weiss calls out to her quietly. Ruby looks at her and Weiss points to her left.

A small group of Sabyr is wandering the streets. It’s a small pack and they are looking around, probably following some poor person’s dark emotions. They are still a little far from the others, but they can’t ignore this. It’s too dangerous for the civilians. Most people left here are still at the evacuation post trying desperately to get evacuated.

Ruby hopes the atlas military are still evacuating people, even with Ironwood’s decision to declare martial law. The realistic part of her isn’t convince, it’s almost certain they have closed the gates, and put robots as guards, most human personal was being recalled. Still, Ironwood’s plan was for them to push Atlas into the skies. Without the Winter Maiden to open the vault they can’t do that, which gives him time to keep evacuating if he chooses so.

For all the differences between them, Ruby hopes James Ironwood still wants to save lives. With Salem at their doors, the General must know that trying to move Atlas will only get him so far. His plan is hanging by a tread and depending on what Salem’s next moves are, it could be undoable.

However her plan for getting the others is still doable. “Go on. I’ll take this Grimm’s out and go back to Yang and Blake. Get the others and meet us there.”

Weiss hesitates. Her face clearly shows she doesn’t want to let Ruby out of her sight. Ruby understands that, any time they leave someone behind, she gets this deep feeling of longing. Like she is not going to see them for a while, and it hurts to watch them go. She has been fighting those feelings for a while now.

Weiss takes a deep breath. “Okay. I’ll get the others…but Ruby be careful…” she asks in a soft voice. “Something feels wrong.”

Ruby almost snorts everything feels wrong, instead she gives Weiss a soft smile. “Don’t worry, we’ll get through this. Go.”

She doesn’t promise Weiss it will turn out fine. She is about to fight Grimm and for all the skill she has, sometimes is not enough. Weiss herself isn’t in a better position. If she finds anymore Grimm she’ll have to fight them alone, with no backup coming. But they are Huntresses and it’s the job they sign of to do.

Ruby’s mind refocuses on the Sabyr under her. She knows they are fast, but so is she. Have a pack mentality similar to Beowolves, and are mutated by the weather conditions.

She frees Crescent Rose from the magnetic lock and aims at the one who is further from the pack and shoots him in the eye.

One down.

The rest immediately snarl back at her as she jumps down. There are about twenty remaining all piss of and growling. Using her semblance she zooms in on the two closest to her. They swipe at her with pointy claws, which she easily dodges with a handless wheel, using the momentum she drives the blade into the leg of the Sabyr while shooting the other in the face.

Three down.

Ruby lands on her feet just as three Sabyr jump at her, two go high, while another one goes low. With a flip she goes airborne, whacking one of them with the blunt part of her scythe, while sticking the sharp part into the ribcage of another Grimm. The third one still tries to bite her, but she grabs the body of Crescent Rose and rotates herself with the help of her semblance and kicks that Grimm into the one that try to attack her from bellow.

She shoots point blank the Grimm she had previously hit, using the same recoil to split in half the Sabyr she had hooked with the blade. Ruby lands on the back of the one she had kicked and shoots him into the other Grimm again. A new Sabyr jumps at her, she inverts Crescent Rose blade and shoots that Grimm, while using the recoil to cut the two dizzy Grimm she had whacked around.

Eight down.

As they all converge on her, Ruby uses one as a springboard and with a wide slice she cuts two Sabyr around their stomach areas, leaving her surrounded by another six. Shooting the one used as springboard back into another new comer, Ruby starts slicing at the other six. One of them jumps at her, but she shoots his teeth off, grabbing those she drives into another’s eye while shooting another two Grimm down.

Thirteen down.

She cuts a piece of ice out of the ground and using Crescent Rose’s blade as a shovel she throws at three incoming Sabyr. Although they don’t get hurt by it, it does confuse them enough for her to slice thought them. Not wasting a second she uses the black smoke from the disappearing Grimm to launch an attack to the ones closer to her. One goes high the one goes for low. She spins her weapon at a high speed and deflects the attack. The one who attacked high is left with its underbelly expose and gets dispatch quickly, the other one attacks again, but it’s meet with the blade from Crescent Rose.

Eighteen down.

With three left Ruby seriously considers using her semblance to cut them out, but she is still trying to preserve her aura. It was the reason neither her nor Weiss used their semblances to get her friends. So she takes them down slowly.

After she finishes her gut starts screaming at her. Something is wrong. Ruby starts to look around trying to spot more Grimm, but all she sees is an empty street. The snow glowing a sickly white, gives a disturbing contrast to the black and red sky. Yet, outside of that Ruby can’t see any threat. Still she doesn’t lower her guard. Her mind keeps playing a message of “something is wrong”, over and over again.

Suddenly she spots Weiss coming out of an alley. Why would she…

Ruby’s eyes widen as she shoots at Weiss who dodges in a weirdly acrobatic way. Even before that movement she knew that wasn’t Weiss, the walk was wrong. She hears something coming from her right and has only time to look up.

A fire ball nails her, and her aura breaks. She lands near the fake Weiss, who smiles at her as her eyes change from a light blue into brown and pink. Neo.

A smug low voice echoes in the night. “Mmh. Little red, and here I thought you would take more time spotting the difference. You’ve improved.” A foot kicks her side and her vision starts blurring. “Not nearly enough.”

The last thing Ruby sees before passing out it’s the Cinder’s face illuminated by a fire ball.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello!  
> New chapter! Cinder and Neo show up. I’ve had them marked as characters in the Fic since chapter one, but their appearances were always meant to be later on. I also updated the tags, and I will add more next chapter. I’m considering adding a rating next chapter, not sure yet, but leading towards M.   
> We half way done with the story and next chapter is the climax. Next chapter will be either next Friday or Saturday.  
> Thank you for reading this. Beware the mistakes and be nice in the comments.  
> Blood Wolf


	4. I’ll Picture Me Besides Her

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Things go from bad to worse as Ruby finds herself in the hands of Cinder and Neo.

As soon as she regains conscious Ruby knows something is seriously wrong. Her eyes have been blindfolded, she is sitting on a chair with both her arms and legs secure by chains, her aura has been suppressed and she can hear the swish sound of a knife being spin.

“You’re finally awake?” Cinder’s voice comes out in a mocking tone, with a bit of hate in the mix. “You’ve kept me and Neo so lonely without your company…”

“Where’s Salem?” Ruby asks.

Instead of an answer she heard a sharp intake of breath, and Ruby had to fight against a smile. So Cinder decided to abduct her, but she didn’t bring her to Salem. The hate and obsession the woman seems to have for her it’s almost sickening. It’s so grand she would sooner defy an unstable and cruel woman than to hand her over. Ruby had yet to meet someone who works for Salem and is willing to cross her.

She understood why. The visions from Jinn had shown a woman capable of manipulating the Gods, manipulating armies of people without any scruples just so she could get her revenge on the Gods, even if it meant some might die. When she found out her daughters could do magic, her first thought was to replace humanity with her descents, which was creepy as hell.

Salem had long lost her sanity, and from what Ruby had seen from Jinn also lost her patience. Being infected by the waters of the God of Darkness had left Salem a very dangerous person to cross prone to violent outbursts.

Yet, here she was standing before Cinder - or around her, with the blindfold on she wasn’t sure - who seemed perfectly willing to take a chance of pissing of Salem. Ruby wasn’t sure if Cinder had always been this crazy or if the defeat against yet another Maiden sent her over the edge.

There was one thing in all of this she couldn’t understand. Why was Neo doing this? Money? Unlikely, Roman had literally implied he was working with Cinder for survival reasons before dying. Was it because of Roman? It could be, after all she could blame Ruby for his death, but if that’s truth then why doesn’t she blame Cinder?

Or maybe she did…

Cinder might just be the easier person to team up to get to Ruby. After this - whatever this is - she might stab Cinder in the back, literally. Can she try to use that? Use the rift between the two to try to escape? Ruby isn’t sure. She has never attempted anything like that in her life. Ironic, since right now her life might depend on it.

“You didn’t take me to Salem?” Ruby asks while trying to buy time and figure out what to do. “Or is she not here yet?”

Cinder growls and Ruby gets punch in the face. Ouch, Cinder must have used the Grimm arm to hit, because she almost lost conscious. “I should have gagged you, but then again I want to hear you scream.”

Ruby doesn’t answer. Cinder is a sadist, the more a person shows her fear the more she thrives.

A sneer echoes. “Mh…No more questions? I…”

“What do you want?” Ruby can almost feel Cinder’s rage at being interrupted. She feels a claw grip her neck and squeeze.

“I want to rip out your eyes and cut off your arms, so you can feel what you did to me.” She screams. “But I’m loyal to Salem. She wants you alive and in one piece… So I won’t rip out those meddling silver eyes of yours.” The condescending tone has a layer of anger.

Ruby thinks she figured out why Cinder has teamed up with Neo. Neo doesn’t work for Salem, whatever the orders Cinder has received, Neo hasn’t. What Neo probably doesn’t know is crossing Salem or interfere with her plans - even if accidentally - will end with the person becoming a target.

“Of course, there are other ways to hurt you without causing permanent damage.” A heat source approaches her face, it’s suffocating and Ruby starts to sweat. She’s almost sure Cinder is holding a fire ball close to her face. “I admit I prefer fire, but water can hurt you just as much. Have you ever suffocated _little red_?”

Ruby doesn’t answer, but it doesn’t take a genius to figure out what Cinder is implying.

“Still not talking? Doesn’t matter.” Cinder’s tone gives away the lie, she’s annoyed Ruby won’t answer, won’t rise to the taunting. “You’ll soon be begging.” Her Grimm claw caresses Ruby’s face leaving goose bumps in its awake. “Soon, but not now. I have to go find where you and your little friends have been hiding. Salem will want to know about the Winter Maiden location.”

Penny…no. Something must have flash across Ruby’s face, because she hears Cinder chuckle. “Of course, I forgot about the puppet. It’s your little friend right?”

Ruby has to bit her tongue so she doesn’t retort back. Penny is not a puppet, has never been and will never be one.

Cinder keeps the monologue going. “In one night, I’ll deliver you, the lamp, and the location of your annoying little friends. You friends which include the Winter Maiden, and Ozpin in baby form.”

“…”

“Still nothing?” Another taunt. “It’s alright. I’m sure you’ll be more talkative when I come back.”

The sound of a set of high hills walking away echoes. A door opens and closes, leaving Ruby alone. A part of her knows Cinder wants to taunt her, to draw out reactions, and not being able to do it must anger Cinder.

Leaving her to stew after promising to water board her, and give up her family to Salem was part of the plan. A sadist always wants their victims to suffer, and suffering isn’t just physical, at times is all in a person’s head. Ruby doesn’t want to admit, but Cinder did a good job, the torture part doesn’t scare her nearly as much as the threat to her friends, but it’s still efficient.

Ruby doesn’t know how much time has pass since she got taken, but doubts it’s been a lot. She stills feels exhausted. She might be tired, but the way she was knocked out would put her on high alert, meaning she would wake up as soon as soon as her body would allow.

Her team and friends are probably still fighting the Grimm. It’s probably how Cinder found her and Ruby suspects its how she hopes to find the others. She has a small window of opportunity, and she will use it.

She rechecks her chains, and finds them tight. She can’t get out without help. Still, Cinder wouldn’t just leave her alone in a room, even if she was sure Ruby would have been secured. That meant…

“Neo?” Silence, which makes sense for a mute. “Are you here?”

A slime blade rests against her throat, answering the question.

“I’m guessing this is about Roman?”

The blade drags softly across Ruby’s skin not breaking it, and then a hand pats her head. She takes that as a yes.

“Did Cinder tell you anything about Salem?”

A hand pats her head.

“You know she can control Grimm?”

Pat.

“Do you know how Roman died?”

A beat and the blade returns to her neck, almost breaking skin.

“I’m sorry he died, but I’m not sorry I tried to stop you.” Neo doesn’t move so she continues. “I didn’t kill him. We were fighting after you went…err flying. He overpowered me and start to hit me with his cane…he didn’t notice but a Griffin had landed and…he got eaten.”

Nothing happens, no blade, no pat. Well, here goes nothing.

“I understand that you think if I hadn’t gone up there he would still be alive, but you’re wrong. Roman got killed by a Grimm while Cinder’s faction…the faction you were working was left unharmed. Neo, Cinder had no intention of letting Roman, a man who knew too much live after he had…Arrk.”

Neo had punched her. Ruby had no idea if that was a good sign or not.

“The White Fang members were sitting with Grimm inside tiny airships, and they didn’t get target. Do you think they were thinking happy thoughts just as they were about to drop Grimm into a school? Why did they survive fighting alongside the Grimm, but Roman didn’t?”

This was a bluff. One that Ruby suspected had a hitting of truth, but still a bluff. Roman would have become a lose end by Cinder’s standards and would likely had been killed. He wasn’t like Adam who could still help them in Haven. He had outlived his purpose with the destruction of Vale complete, and would meet his end there no matter what.

She was sure Neo would at least think about this. Ruby wasn’t sure if she had prioritized killing her or Cinder. If she tried to kill Cinder, Ruby doubted Neo had the power to do it. A Maiden was stupidly strong, and trying to take one alone would be close to suicidal.

If she prioritized killing Ruby and then stab Cinder in the back, without any previous fight, Ruby was in serious danger. The entire bluff depended on two things. If Neo also believed Cinder would have killed Roman no matter what, and if she was aware of how powerful Cinder currently was.

The lack of a blade or a pat had her lining into the later option rather than the former.

“Did she tell you about the Maidens?”

Pat. Good, Neo is still willing to listen to her.

“Have you fought her?”

Another pat, this one with more strength.

“I can help you with her…” A blade into her neck.

“My silver eyes, why do you think they are blindfolded? She is vulnerable to them, since she is part Grimm. They don’t affect you, only Grimm. Let me out, I can help you…”

The blame breaks skin, but it’s away from any veins. “I know you hate me but who do you hate more? Me or Cinder? You can try to kill me after Cinder’s dead, but you can’t take on Cinder if I’m dead…”

For a moment nothing happens, then Ruby gets punch in the face and her vision goes black. She doesn’t know what that means either.

…

Cold water being thrown in her face is a horrible way to wake up.

“Arck…wha-”

“That’s better…” Cinder’s voice. “I heard you upset poor little Neo, and she had to put you into a time out. You’re lucky it wasn’t a permanent one.” Her tone has a slight hint of disappointment…was Cinder hoping Neo would kill me immediately after she left?

Cinder grabs Ruby’s hair and pulls backwards. Her breath blows into her ear as she whispers. “I know where your friends are.” She chuckles and Ruby feels her veins turn to ice.

She slightly trembles, and feels Cinder’s lips turning into an ugly smirk.

“I didn’t see the puppet or Ozpin, but I did see your team and Pyrrha’s…”

Hearing her say Pyrrha’s name like that is awful. Cinder Fall is one of the worst type’s of monster she had the displeasure of meeting. The Grimm arm fits her. She delights on the miserly of others and preys on it disturbingly similar to a Grimm. Ruby thinks even before Cinder got that arm, she was already like this.

“…boy was escorting an old lady, but they lead me right into an abandon center. Guess your little band of misfits is setting up camp there.”

Her voice gains an even more smug tone. “Sadly, I haven’t been able to contact Salem yet.” Her tone is further thing from sad as possible. “It means we are going to have time to ourselves before I have to give you up. Now to find a piece of cloth…”

Ruby feels Cinder pull her hood over her head. “I guess we found one…”

She hears someone moving closer.

“Neo…you’ll get your turn.” A pause. “Why don’t you check on her restrains? See if they are nice and tight.”

Ruby can’t see any type of Neo’s replies, but she does feel hands touching the chains. Oddly enough they don’t feel tighter…in fact they feel lose. Ruby even fells her energy coming back. Then it hits her. When Neo had check the chains she had loosen them enough so Ruby could access the little aura she had been rebuilt. She can’t take them off, but she can dissolve into petals.

Now it’s just waiting for the perfect moment to strike. Neo is aware she can get freed, but Cinder isn’t. Ruby has no illusions about her situation, even getting out of the restrains it’s going to be a difficult fight. Her eyes react almost automatically to Cinder last time, but the situation was totally different.

Here it’s her life on the line. She doesn’t have absolute control over her powers, and right now it could spell disaster. Assuming it all goes well she will still have to fight Neo, or at least outrun her. Neo isn’t doing this because she has forgiven Ruby. Neo is doing it to get her best chance to hurt Cinder.

Cinder keeps talking, taunting and insulting her. Ruby just focuses on her aura, and tries to gather energy in her eyes. Thinks about her family and friends who don’t know their location has been compromised. Thinks of the good times, thinks about helping them, of the things she wants to do and say. Ruby focuses on the people she loves and waits.

Apparently Cinder gets tired from the lack on answers, because the hood on the cloak goes over Ruby’s head and water starts pouring. It’s hell. Yet she endures it, because when Cinder stops and starts to monologue again, it’s the best time to free herself.

So she waits, she waits while her body spasms for air, she waits while she feels like she is dying, she waits even when Cinder is screaming something she can’t understand, she waits when all she wants to do is get up and run.

It takes forever to stop and when her hood is pulled back, Ruby pants hard. A slap across her face has her focusing again.

“Feel like talking now?” Cinder’s heels echo as she walks away from her - probably to refill whatever the hell she used - and the moment arrives.

As fast as she can, Ruby pulls on her semblance and dissolves into petals, freed from the restrains. She reforms behind the chair and her aura breaks almost instantly.

“ ** _WHAT_**?” Rage, Cinder tone is dripping absolute rage. “ ** _NEOPOLITAN_**.”

Taking the blindfold off, Ruby sees the room for the first time. She’s in the middle of the room, a really small room. It doesn’t have windows, and only has a small door. There’s a computer on the right corner.

Cinder stands directly in front of the chair and behind Cinder is Neo, with the umbrella in hand smirking viciously. The only door in the room is directly behind Neo. Cinder sends a few glass shards flying across the room, making her and Neo have to jump to avoid getting stab.

Ruby looks at Cinder and immediately thinks of all the bad things that monster has done to her friends. Pyrrha’s and Penny’s murders, Weiss getting impaled, the attack at Haven, taunting Ironwood to the point of no return, and so much more.

Slowly her eyes start to burn with familiar power.

Tragically, it’s a slow burn.

Cinder’s eyes fill with panic, and desperately sends a dozen of harden glass shards flying to Ruby. The room is small and the space to dodge doesn’t exist. If she had Crescent Rose, it would be easy. She would twirl it around and send the shards away.

But she doesn’t have Crescent Rose.

She doesn’t have space to dodge.

She doesn’t have enough aura left to turn into petals.

Ruby can do nothing, but feel the burn of the shards as they pierce her. Her arms, her legs, her torso all start to bleed. Her face was covered by her arms so her eyes are fine. The Rose emblem falls to the ground and knees falter. She lands against the wall and lets out a soft “ _Oh_.”

Cinder’s eyes gain a manically happy shine, before fear overtakes it. Somehow Ruby thinks Salem won’t be happy tonight. Yet, Cinder’s smug smile falls into place as she turns to face Neo who is already ready to take a strike, but Ruby’s eyes haven’t stop building power even if her entire body throbs with pain.

Cinder’s pride has once again been her fall.

The room is overtaken by a bright light and a scream is briefly heard. Her eyes automatically stop and Ruby knows Cinder is dead even before her eyes focus again.

It takes a lot to try to focus. Neo is on the ground clutching her head and for a second Ruby wonder if Cinder wasn’t the only person with a Grimm arm.

Then Neo looks at her. Two bright flames are coming from Neo’s eyes, one pink, and one brown. Neo has just become the Fall Maiden, Ruby should really have seen that coming. Cinder was about to attack her, it would make sense Neo being the last person on Cinder’s mind.

“Crap.” She whispers. “Do you know what’s happening?”

Neo hesitates but nods.

“I need you to hear me out. You’re the Fall Maiden…I don’t know how much Cinder explained…but you’re now in danger…” Ruby runs out of breath several times during that sentence…not a good sign.

Neo holds on to Roman’s hat with trembling hands.

“The Maiden’s were supposed to protect four relics. You stole one of them from my friends…the relic of knowledge from the S-Spring Maiden?”

Neo nods. Good fewer things to explain. With how freaked out Neo is, she probably knows this isn’t a good thing. She clearly knew something about Salem, but Ruby doubts it’s close to the whole truth, but enough to know this isn’t good. Her willingness to ear Ruby out comes out of a need to survive, more than a wish to enable Ruby.

Ruby doesn’t care. This could work in her friends favor. She knows she isn’t getting out of the room alive, but she can still help her friends. Neo is most likely to live if she runs and hides, than joining Salem, if she knows Salem end goal. She’ll know the risks of the Black Queen wining, the world getting wiped…again.

“Salem wants to gather the relics to summon back…a power.” Maybe the Gods it’s too much right now. “She was human once, but she jump into the pools of Grimm…where they are born…ah…ahh…it made her a being of pure destruction…she wants to wipe out everybody and if the relics come together she will be able to do it…”

Neo looks more freaked out by the moment.

“Oz hide your relic…in the vale…the crown of choice… Salem technically doesn’t need you…but she would rather have the Maiden’s power on her side…yet, if you join her you will just bring the end of the world faster…”

Ruby doesn’t think she has ever explained something so important in so little time, with so much missing out. Neo seems to realize she is getting the cliffsnotes, but pays absolute attention.

“We don’t know if a-anyone who w-works for her k-knows the full truth…we only found out b-because we used the relic of k-knowledge…it’s not important…ah…what is important is you need to u-un-understand using those powers will turn you into a target…you need to decide on what to do…Do you have the lamp?”

Neo nods.

“It attracts Grimm, you can ditch it or…give it back…to my friends…” A long shot, but you never know.

Ruby tries to smile, but it comes out as a grimace when pangs of pain come from a particularly deep wound in her stomach. Neo does smirk at that. Ruby has no idea what are plans are, but if she’s anything like Torchwick, she’ll choose survival over anything else.

Neo walks over and for a moment Ruby thinks she might finish what Cinder started prematurely. Yet, she drops a scroll and points at the computer, before starting to walk away.

Ruby doesn’t know if it’s the information she gave her, or Cinder dying, or Ruby’s life fading, but Neo isn’t going to kill her.

“Neo?”

Neo looks back.

“Stay safe…and survive.” She thinks she saw a smile, before Neo shatters herself out of the room.

Her body hurts so much, the lack of air doesn’t compare to the treatment she received minutes ago, but it’s still agony. Ruby turns to the computer on the corner, sliding down the wall, Ruby drags herself towards it.

It’s painful and midway, she undoes the clasps from her cloak to crawl faster. The floor is covered in rose petals, mixing with her blood. The air holds a disturbing smell of flowers and death.

It smells like her mother’s grave.

Sitting up again is agony, but she grabs the scroll and connects it to the PC.

The information on the screen overwhelms Ruby, for a minute she wonders if she’s hallucinating from the blood loss. It has the plans for Salem’s invasion. The plan detailing Watts and Tyrian schemes, the way Salem would attack, weak points in the defense of Mantle and Atlas, Cinder’s notes on future schemes and thoughts on what strategies Salem would/might use. It even had plans detailing a possible attack on Vacuo and something called the Crown.

It was the answer to all Ruby wanted that morning, information and a way to get ahead of Salem. Ruby’s vision occasionally starts to darken, but she fights it. Composing a message for her team she puts in a code they had developed back in Beacon.

It was back when they had found out about Blake’s time in the White Fang, and the stealth missions she used to do. Blake told her they had secret codes, and Ruby had decided team RWBY also needed one. It drove her team insane, but she did it. She created a secret code from scratch and ~~taught~~ Weiss taught it to the others.

They had never used it again, but she was willing to bet Weiss at least still remembered it. She doesn’t tell them she’s in danger. They were out fighting Grimm, and it could be dangerous to alarm them. Ruby doesn’t know where she is and she doubts they will find her in time…so she ends the message with a secret…“I love you.”

Message sent.

She sets the system to erase all the information on the drives of both the computer and the scroll.

Ruby entertains the thought of trying to get up on the computer and figure out a way to call for help, but she didn’t even know if it would make a difference. There was more blood spatter on the floor than left in her body, and even if any of her friends made it here in time - even Jaune - best case scenario would be to watch her drawing a final breath. That’s if she was lucky enough.

Pyrrha’s dying moments flashed forward. Ruby had wished a thousand times to have been faster, to get to the top of the Beacon tower faster, but she didn’t. She didn’t want to doom any of her friends to have to experience that feeling, of being just too slow.

Plus, they were busy fighting Salem’s forces, protecting the city of Mantle from the biggest invasion of Grimm it had ever seen. To take resources for a simple person it was selfish, especially when she wasn’t going to make it.

It didn’t hurt any less to die alone.

Her breathing had become arduous but the pain from it was disappearing. Her body was growing numb and weaker. The blood was mixing with her rose petals created a beautiful macabre drawing on the white floor. The stench of death was all around her. The discarded brooch was standing only a couple feet away, but Ruby was too weak to even move anymore. Her eyes keep trying to close shut and the world was losing color.

She felt a ghost of a hand over her head. She used the last of her force to glance up. A familiar smile was looking down on her.

“Mom…” was whispered a final time.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello!  
> New chapter! Ruby just died. It was hard to do it but it was the main reason this fic exists. After hearing the song Until the End, I got inspired. My mind had a what-if the parallels they keep drawing between Ruby and Summer lead somewhere dark. So…Dark Parallels + Until the end + Summer’s final fate = this fic. What do you think?
> 
> I think a few of you could predict where this fic was leading. I did warn you both in the tags and the notes this fic was on the dark side. It was my first time writing a death scene and I hope you liked it. Cinder meet her end in a way that’s not too bad - I support the theory she is going to turn into a Grimm in the show - and Neo become the Maiden.
> 
> I considered making Ruby the Fall Maiden and dying transferring her the power onto a member of her team, and make that the way they found out about Ruby’s disappearance…but I couldn’t choose which of the girls…Still, I think I might put that idea on my bucket list of fics to write.
> 
> So next chapter is the last one, and you’re probably wondering what I’m going to do now the main character of the fic is dead. Well, I’m going to change characters POV and I’m going to have them react to Ruby getting taken…Spoilers for the rest.
> 
> Next chapter will be either next Friday or Saturday.
> 
> Thank you for reading this. Beware the mistakes and be nice in the comments.  
> Blood Wolf


	5. I Promise I’ll Be Here Until The End

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> When things go wrong…they go wrong. Reactions and pain.

Jaune POV

Since Neo had stolen the lamp from them, Jaune couldn’t stop feeling a mix of anxiety and dread.

It was a feeling reminiscing of the fall of Beacon, and he had to wonder if it wasn’t because of the similarities between the two. The situation, the stress, the lack of knowledge, the emotional damage done to his team (back then Pyrrha, now Ren), Maidens, Grimm, and so much more.

Jaune tries to ignore similarities the best he can and keeps walking, leading his team.

Ruby had given them a gift by allowing them to go out and check on things. There were a few Grimm in the streets, but not enough to overwhelm them, which helped him with his panic over a Beacon type situation.

They had split up from Qrow and Maria who went somewhere. Jaune had a feeling Maria was going to distribute some much needed wisdom to Qrow. The man was deep in mourning, it was clear to see he was angry and wanted to find someone to blame. It was also clear he blamed himself for Clover’s death.

It was a dangerous path for a recovering alcoholic. The comment about wanting a drink was a bad sign. It might have been a bad taste joke, but the tone had fallen flat. Ruby’s hurt expression at those words had made the comment all the worse. The RWBY team leader was already dealing with enough. The last thing she needed was her uncle going on a binge.

Maybe that was why Maria had intervened. She had a type of wisdom for this situations they all lack. It was clear the old woman had seen and dealt some tough things. Plus the story on how she stopped being the Grimm Reaper was a chilling tale.

It wouldn’t stop the man from grieving and feeling like crap, but it might keep him in the fight. Losing one of - probably _the_ \- best fighter in the group would be a bad blow. It would also be bad since Ruby and Yang would suffer greatly from losing their Uncle. Be it to death or booze.

The feeling of dread increases as Jaune cuts down a Sabyr. There seems to be a pack of them down in a hole they had found. The Grimm were mostly contain to it JNR were making quick work of dispatching them.

Speaking of Ren and Nora, the argument the three of them had back in Pietro’s shop was still playing a role in their interactions. Finding out about Neo using Nora’s face as a distraction was painful, Nora had hugged Ren who still looked ashamed of being tricked by such an obvious trick.

Jaune had told Ren, if Neo had used Pyrrha, he would also have reacted badly. Nora followed that by saying if the roles were reversed she would also hesitate. It was normal to want to protect the people they loved.

Ren had reacted okay to it, but it was when they reached the blow out in the plane, that things took a turn for the worst. Ren went from listening to them, to ranting about anything and everything. Robyn’s decision was just the thing that made him snap, there were other things since they arriving in Atlas that came out. It took a while, but half way into the argument, Jaune realized what Ren’s problem was - the lack of control. One of the reasons Ren had like the military structure was the order and organization it had. You trusted the system for a plan, and a path for victory. You trust in the system and it would pay out.

With this arrest warrant, Ren was left feeling betrayed, since he couldn’t scream at the system - he wasn’t ready to confront the problems - he screamed at him, Nora, Blake and Yang. At anyone he could, and Jaune understood the need for it. Ozpin’s return had also left him wanting to scream at everyone.

Letting him vent his feelings had done wonders. After it they had a very productive conversation with Ren. Then Qrow and Oscar return, and the time to process seemed to run out.

Ozpin’s return left Jaune feeling conflicted. He doesn’t like the man, and would rather keep his friends far away from Oz. He had gotten done grieving for Pyrrha’s death a few months ago, but it didn’t mean occasionally think about her wasn’t incredibly painful.

Ozpin failed them. Back in Beacon when they were first year students, they trusted the man to do the best for them. Yet, he failed, logically Jaune was aware Oz wasn’t the one responsible, but emotionally it was harder to accept. The role of the Maiden being offered to someone like Pyrrha was a choice. She should have never been offer such a role no matter how dire the circumstances were. It ultimately ended with her choosing to fight Cinder alone.

When Pyrrha had been killed, a part of him had died with her.

Back in Argus when the full truth came out it he had founded alarmingly easy to blame Oscar. To think Ozpin had just reincarnated, and lied to him about Oscar being his own person. In a fit of anger he had push Oscar into the wall, and it wasn’t until Ruby was screaming his name and glaring that Jaune realized he had gone too far.

Jaune was well aware he sometimes let his emotions get the best of him, Oscar, the emotional outburst against Cinder, and other situations demonstrated it well.

Ozpin returning had left him angry, specially now with Salem here. It felt like the man had return at the worst possible moment. Ruby wanting to hear him out was logical, Oz had fought Salem longer than all of them put together had been alive. Yet, when Ruby’s idea was put out in the open, the first thing he felt was distrust.

Not of Ruby, but of Oz. They might have the same goals, but Jaune doesn’t know if he will ever be able to trust Oz.

“Jaune…” Nora calls out to him. “Someone is coming.”

He turns with his shield raise towards the entrance. Ren and Nora run to stand behind him, and get ready to start shooting.

It isn’t needed.

Weiss appears.

Correction, an out of breath Weiss appears.

“What’s wrong?”

“Grimm. Not a lot, but close to the center. Yang and Blake stayed behind to fight them.”

Jaune swallows dryly. “Salem?”

“No.” They all breathe a sigh of relief. “We tried to contact you, but…”

“…our scrolls don’t work down here.”

“Yeah, we got to go. Where are Qrow and Maria?”

“They went somewhere to talk.” Nora answers.

Weiss nods. “We should go. I left Ruby a few blocks away to fight a pack of Sabyr, she’ll meet up after.”

Jaune’s stomach twists violently at that, he has no idea why. Ruby is one of the best Huntresses out of them.

“Okay. Let’s go.”

…

They find Maria and Qrow on the rooftop of a building, and go to help out Blake and Yang. Ren stayed behind with Maria, who snarky said she could still walk towards the safe house alone, but let Ren follow her.

There is a lot more Grimm here and it takes a lot more time to take care of them. When they get the final Grimm down a thought appears in Jaune’s mind.

“Where’s Ruby?”

WBY frown. Weiss takes her scroll out. “I got a message from her in code.”

Qrow frowns. “Code? What code?”

Blake answers smiling “Something she invented after I told her about the White Fang secret codes. It took her weeks to figure a good system, and another week until Weiss understood it enough to teach us.”

Yang groans. “Is she going to revive that?”

“Oh…secret codes. I’m in.” Nora says with stars in her eyes.

“It might not be a bad idea…” Jaune says.

“Anyway what was the message?” Qrow asks.

“It’s a huge file. With a simple message. Found this in building. Exploring. Until we meet again. I love you.”

Jaune frowns something feels wrong. “That’s weird…”

“Not really. She invented the code, but half the times she forgot words or symbols and we got extremely short and confusing messages.”Yang says with a soft smile.

“I remember this one time…” Blake starts.

“OH MY GODS…” Weiss interrupts.

“What is it?” Qrow asks.

“I think Ruby found Watts safe house.” Weiss replies.

“What?”

“There’s information here on the attack in Atlas, Salem’s forces, things about Cinder…I think there is even things about a possible plan for Vacuo.” Weiss looks up. “Blake, Yang check you’re scrolls, you’re in the message.”

Both girls immediately pull out her phones. Jaune looks over Weiss’s scroll. It was a lot of information, but it seemed to checked out.

“We need to get this to Pietro.” Jaune pulls out his phone and calls Ruby. She doesn’t pick up. “I think she might still be exploring. Ruby isn’t picking up.”

“Keep trying.” Qrow said. “Let’s go back to the safe house. This is very dangerous information to fall into the wrong hands.”

They head back to the center. When they go in Penny, Ren and Oscar are waiting for them.

Penny looks around. “Where’s Ruby?”

“Still exploring. She found something big.”

Weiss shows Pietro the scroll and the man immediately starts pulling up data. He stops after a while. “It’s truth. At least the way Watts went into the mainframe and the weaknesses in the system.”

“We need a plan.” Jaune says. “Ruby isn’t here, but she should be back soon.”

Oscar comes forward. “I…” He hesitates. “While you were gone Oz spoke to me…”

Silence, no one wanted to snap at Oscar, but hearing that didn’t leave a lot of them happy. Still, Jaune puts his hand on Oscar’s shoulder and squeezes. “It’s alright. Like Ruby said we can hear him out, but we don’t have to do everything he says.”

His words relax most of them and give Oscar the confidence to speak. “He says he has a way to get Ironwood of our backs… at least get him to drop the warrants. Pietro do you have an untraceable way for us to call Ironwood?”

“I can try.”

Oscar nod. “He wants to talk with Ironwood…he says if you want, you can stay and listen.”

Transparency. That’s a new one for Ozpin.

Qrow is the only one reply to Oscar. “We’ll stay. Does Oz want to come out?”

Oscar shakes his head. “But, he wants to look at the information…he’s panicking about Salem being here.”

His Grimm of an ex-wife being this close must cause him massive panic. That aside what Oz is asking doesn’t sound unreasonable. A part of Jaune is reluctant to let him near the information, but it’s irrational. Oscar will need to see the information, meaning Oz will get it either way. Plus, Oz and Qrow are the best bet to help understand the information about Vacuo. Jaune wants to wait for Ruby for her to decide on the information, but the Oz’s plan is not a bad one.

“Ruby isn’t back yet, but I think it might be a good idea to hear what she has to say about the information she found.” Jaune runs a hand to his head to think. “I also think if we get a chance to get out of the most wanted list we should take it.”

They all look at each other and nod. It’s decided.

…

Pietro manage to get an untraceable connection to the General. After it Jaune asked him if he could locate Ruby, it’s only been one hour, but Jaune’s sense of dread is escalating to an alarming degree.

It doesn’t help when Oscar’s eyes flash gold for a second and his posture changes.

Ozpin is here.

“Who are you?” The angry voice of Ironwood came through the channels.

“It’s us James.” Ozpin answers.

A sharp intake of breath is heard and Jaune wonders if it’s because of Oscar’s voice or their ability to contact him. “I told you James is what my friends call me…”

Ozpin interrupts. “You told young Oscar that. I’m not Oscar.”

A faint voice is heard. “Ozpin?”

“Yes. We need to talk.”

“I have nothing to say to you…”

“I think there is plenty we could say to each other, but right now it doesn’t matter…”

Pietro sharp intake of breath has all of the room turning to him. He signals to Ozpin to carry on and looks at WBY and his team and makes a follow-me gesture. Jaune would have protest if the feeling of dread on his stomach hadn’t just double.

Qrow nods at them and stays behind. When they arrive at the other room Pietro immediately speaks up.

“I finally hack into the cameras where Ruby was last seen.” His voice is full of stress. “I’m trying to find where they…” He trails off.

Jaune’s heart hurts even more and the dread feeling is making him sick. “What’s wrong?”

Pietro doesn’t answer keeps hacking cameras, but pulls up a video footage on a screen.

It’s Ruby killing of a small group of Grimm’s. A part of Jaune is mystified by how easy she makes it seem, but the main one just feels dread. The video comes to the part where Ruby finishes the last Grimm and Jaune almost speaks up asking why they are watching this. Then it happens.

Weiss Schnee shows up on screen. Only that is impossible, because Weiss had left Ruby to meet up with them.

“That’s not me.” The terrified voice is coming from Weiss who sways in her place almost looking like she might collapse.

Blake brings her right hand to her mouth while her cat ears flop against her head. Her eyes remain glued to the screen, looking like she is in a nightmare and can’t wake up.

Yet, it’s Yang who has the worst reaction out of team RWBY. The blonds’ hands start to tremble and she takes a weak step forward, almost like she is trying to stop what’s happening, but her knees shake so bad she almost falls over while muttering a single word over and over again. “ _No_.”

Ren and Nora stand side by side with him frozen, fear and horror grace their faces. In almost disbelief about what they are seeing. It doesn’t seem possible.

They all watch in horror as Ruby’s eyes go wide and she shoots at Weiss who dodges in a horribly familiar way. It confirms their worst fears, Neo.

It gets worse when a fire ball hits Ruby’s side sending her flying and breaking her aura… then fucking Cinder shows up.

Jaune truly believed he couldn’t hate Cinder Fall anymore. Yet, as she stands smiling over Ruby’s unconscious body, Jaune finds out he was wrong. So very wrong. In that moment he just hates her. Hates so profoundly it feels like it can consume his mind…that is until Yang screams.

Yang’s semblance is activated, hair on fire, face twisted in an ugly snarl, and her eyes deep red. She would have looked terrifying if not for the tears streaming down her face. Blake and Weiss hold on to her the best they can, but neither is looking any better.

Weiss’s face in particularly struck a cord with him. The despair, the pain and realization her partner is in mortal danger, feels like a sick reminder of how he felt back in Beacon. When he called her and Ruby and begged them to help Pyrrha.

Somehow this is worse, Ruby didn’t go out of her way to fight Cinder, she got tracked down and taken. They were waiting for a good time to try and when the partners got separate they had their best chance.

Blake looks like she is trying to say something to Yang, but no words come out. She avoids looking at the monitor playing the footage, and she seems…lost. Blake doesn’t seem to know how to respond to what she’s feeling, trapped in shocked and unable - or unwilling - to confront reality.

He looks back at his team.

For the second time today, he sees Ren cry. Earlier today, Neo had done this to him, masked himself as a loved one, and tricked him. Watching her do the same to Ruby, even if it failed, can’t be any easier; watching Ruby get taken by Cinder who has already killed one of them feels worse.

Nora just stands by Ren’s side clutching his arm as if it’s the only thing keeping her upright. Her head is down, and her face is cover in shadows, but Jaune can see the absolute fury in her expression.

Penny enters the room and frowns. “Why are you all crying?”

Jaune takes a second to realize that he _is_ in fact crying. Pietro’s typing falters for a second, but keeps going.

“Penny…” Jaune’s voice fails him, but he doesn’t have to add anything because Penny’s eyes focus on the monitor behind them, the one showing Ruby getting taken.

“No…please. _No_.” Penny looks close to crying - Jaune doesn’t even know if she can - he has never seen the happy girl look more miserable than in that moment. This must be horrible for Penny to see, Cinder was one of the orchestrators of her death back in Beacon. Watching her first friend get taken by her murder, must be awful.

She pulls herself together. “Father…can you find her? Can you find Ruby?”

“Ruby’s scroll is still on, but they dumped it a block away from the kidnapping. I’m trying to find abnormalities on the cameras behaviors and mapping the locations. Given Neopolitan’s semblance it’s the best way to find her trail. I’ve so far been successful at picking up the path they are on. I just need time to find where their final destination was.”

“My sister doesn’t have time.” Yang screams. “What if they fucking took her to Salem?”

As the words leave her mouth Yang’s legs falter, and Blake has to grab her arm to steady her. Salem wanted Ruby alive. They didn’t know why, but just the thought of Ruby in Salem’s hands was enough to make Jaune want to scream into oblivion. How did they remember to keep Oscar and Penny inside to protect them, but forgotten about Ruby?

Simple, they didn’t. Ruby made the plans, and while she wouldn’t risk the others she risked herself. Jaune just hopes it wasn’t a fool’s gamble.

Weiss speaks up. “She sent us the information about Salem’s plan of attack…that means she must at least have been able to escape…right? I mean if she was hurt she would say something.” Her tone is frantic.

Blake nods. “Yeah…Ruby sent that with the code we invented back at Beacon. She was so proud of herself to come up with she didn’t even let us teach your team. So it’s from her…maybe she is on her way here? Or coming here but…hurt?”

Except the message had ended with an ‘I love you’. Jaune was painfully familiar with final goodbyes, to know that might have been Ruby’s. Still, he puts on a fake smile and whispers. “Yeah…”

No one says a word as they wait for Pietro to find a location. Jaune keeps thinking back at the fall of Beacon. When they lost Pyrrha and prays to Gods - he knows are Assholes - to stop it from repeating. He doesn’t think anyone could take a repeat of that…specially if it’s Ruby. With Salem around losing their leader, losing Ruby might actually kill them. She has given them the courage to move forward, when times are dark, when hope fails she carries on. Ruby inspires every single one of them. Losing that will feel like the final blow of an awful fight.

Jaune can’t thank her enough for inviting him and his team to go to Mistral with her. The chance to find Pyrrha’s killer, to get answers, to grieve, and to heal. It was a tough journey, the grief was fresh on all of them, and most days the path in front of them looked too hard. Yet, Ruby never gave up, always moved forward, move them forward. He could never thank her enough for what she did.

Penny can’t seem to take the silence any longer and speaks up. “Ozpin has gotten the General to cancel the arrest orders while Salem is here. The General doesn’t want to work with us, but he acknowledges that Salem is currently the bigger enemy.”

That makes sense. It would be stupid to waste resources to find them, when they have Salem here. The only thing he might want from them is Penny, but Jaune doubts she will do what Ironwood wants. Penny adores Mantle it’s her home, abandoning it just seems wrong.

“What about the…Maiden situation?”

Penny looks troubled. “The General ordered us to return me, but Ozpin told him that it would be my choice. They were having a fight…when I heard Yang scream.”

Blake looks at Penny. “What are you going to do?”

“Pardon?” Penny frowns.

“We would have preferred if you stayed here with us…but it’s you choice in the end…”

Penny smiles gratefully. “I’ve already made my choice.”

The conversation dies after that. With Ruby in Cinder’s hands any conversation feels forced. The only sound is Pietro typing, and Yang’s pacing. The silence feels suffocating, the situation gets tenser by the second and no one knows what to do. Add to the fact the adrenaline they had from the fighting should be dying down, but the situation interferes…it leaves them all on the edge.

A door opens and they all grab their weapons, but it’s only Maria, Oscar and Qrow. The meeting must have ended. Jaune’s words die in his throat when he looks at Qrow. How do they tell him that Ruby got taken?

Maria looks at them and with a severe expression asks. “What’s wrong?”

“Ruby…” Jaune starts. “She gotten taken…by _Cinder_.”

Qrow’s eyes go huge. He opens his mouth as if to say or ask something, but words seem to fail him. In the end he just lets an enraged scream. Jaune never forgets the moment when they told Qrow Ruby had been kidnapped by Cinder. Jaune swears he had never heard a louder scream in his life.

Oscar’s and Maria’s reactions weren’t better. Maria’s face is an expression of sorrow and pain, probably thinking back to her last fight as the Grimm Reaper. Oscar started to almost hyperventilate.

“WHAT?” Oscar asks in total panic. “What happen? How? When?”

Pietro shows the video of her getting taken again, Jaune turns away. He can’t bear to see it again.

“I’m trying to track her down. Her scroll got ditch near the place she got taken. They were smart. They didn’t turn it off.” Pietro stop for a moment. “The scroll she used to sent us the message is still active. I’ve narrow down the block she is in, but most cameras had already been destroyed before today.”

“What’s the block? We’ll go there now.” Qrow grabs a coat.

Jaune speaks up. “We should wait for the right building…”

“Why?” Yang asks.

“If Cinder or Neo have any sort of surveillance set…they can hurt Ruby if they see you coming.”

Normally Jaune wouldn’t need to remind either of this, but they are in a horrible emotional state, not thinking straight. It’s a bad combination, and if Jaune had the ability to keep them here he would. He decides to do what Penny did, and provide a short distraction to keep them focus.

“How did things ended with Ironwood?”

“We are officially off the most wanted list as long as we stay down here. He wanted Penny there, but we told him we couldn’t speak for her, and since he was only seeing Oz and Qrow…he thought you were somewhere else. We didn’t tell him about the information, but I think we should at least send him the weak points in the city.” Oscar answers and then looks shortly at Qrow.

“Err…things also got heated with him and Qrow…but at least Ironwood knows Tyrian was the one who killed Clover… I had to cut the conversation short, when…”

Maria answers. “The general and this one” she points at Qrow “got into a dick measuring competition.”

Oscar blushes at the vulgar language, but nods.

“I found them.” Pietro calls out. The entire room turns to him at lightning speed. “Here, see this house? It’s here.”

They all get up to go there, but Maria stops them. “You can’t all go. I understand you want to save Ruby, but if this is a trap you can’t all walk in there. Oscar and Penny are also valued targets…”

“I am a Maiden… Cinder is a Maiden. I should come with you.”

Qrow shifts. “Cinder took out the previous Fall Maiden when the girl was too green. You don’t control those powers yet. It would be too dangerous to put another Maiden in their sights.”

Marias speaks up again. “How about you, Yang, Blake and Weiss go?”

Nora protest. “There is no reason we shouldn’t also go.”

Maria pulls out a scroll. “Out of everyone who isn’t a target, those four are the only ones with their aura above 20%. You three would get taken out to soon. Call the other huntresses. See if they can help.”

They did call Robyn who was still close by with Fiona. She promises to meet Team WBY and Qrow there. They also told them the information Ruby had sent them. Pietro was starting to look through it again and so was Oscar. Hopeful by the time they got Ruby back they would also have information that would help with Salem.

…

The wait was the worse. Jaune remembers waiting for news about Pyrrha back at the Fall of Beacon. The sense of dread and despair he felt, hoping for Ruby and Weiss to help Pyrrha. The useless feeling at being left behind because he was too weak had turned to a feeling of being a failure when they told him Pyrrha was death.

He felt the same thing waiting now, the dread, the despair, and the failure. Letting Ruby get taken when they all knew the stakes was a punch in the gut. Jaune only hoped it didn’t have the same end.

Gods it _couldn’t_ have the same ending.

Losing Ruby would destroy her team. Weiss losing her partner on top of having her home threaten would devastate her. Yang had always been so protective of her baby sister, clearly adoring Ruby. Jaune can’t even imagine losing a sister. Blake would lose one of her best friends, the first person she trusted enough to follow after the White Fang.

Qrow was already in a horrible mental state. Losing his niece, after everything would be the straw that breaks the camel…

Jaune is pull out of his thoughts by his scroll ringing.

“Guys…” He starts happily, but trails of at Robyn’s face on the screen. It’s not good news.

Robyn’s face was missing the usual smirk. “We found the place empty, but there is prove Ruby was here…”

“She’s not there anymore?” Jaune asks feeling sick to his stomach. Does that mean Salem has her?

“No…and her uncle and her team aren’t taking it well…Can you get here?”

“We’re on our way.” Jaune says feeling lost.

…

Only his team came, with enormous protests from Penny and Oscar, but they couldn’t leave Maria and Pietro alone.

As they approach the building the feeling of dread that had been rising inside him since the beginning of the day reaches his peak. Jaune swears he’s getting motion sickness from the feeling.

“Jaune?” Nora’s voice comes out horrifyingly small. He looks up and sees Qrow and Robyn sitting side by side against the side of the building Ruby should be in. They run there.

Ren stop in front of him, his back tense. Jaune was about to ask why when he saw Qrow.

Jaune’s instincts screamed.

Jaune already knew things were bad when Robyn had asked them all to come here. They had said they hadn’t found Ruby, but they had found prove that she had been there. Robyn’s tone had been a sign, but seeing Qrow confirmed that whatever they had found isn’t good.

Qrow looks dead. He’s sitting on the snow with his legs spread in front of him, and his back up against the building. He doesn’t move, doesn’t look up at the noises, and doesn’t react to anything. If not for his chest rising and falling, Jaune would have assumed he was dead. Qrow’s eyes had lost all sign of life, even when the man was too drunk to stand, his red eyes were always showing emotion.

Jaune had a shiver go down his spine as he remembers something his father had told him once when Jaune was a teenager. His father had been drunk and his mother was furious about the topic. Yet, Jaune never forgot his father’s words.

“The hunting profession is the hardest to have and the one that demands of you the most. You supposed to stand horrifying things happening, face down monsters with a calm head and keep moving forward. But there are times… Jaune… Times where a Huntsman who has seen too much or suffered too much will get this look in his eyes…or better yet this lack of look. Like the poor’s bastard will to live has taken a short vacation, you can’t bring them with you anywhere on a mission. They will go head first into a Grimm’s mouth. Poor bastards.”

Jaune had never understood what his father had told him, even after the fall of Beacon the students who had a haunted look just quit. A part of him wondered if he had ever had that look on his face after Pyrrha. Yet, on the road he had somewhat recovered, and he never had an impulse to jump into a Grimm’s mouth. The closest he came was the battle at Haven, where he tried to take out Cinder knowing it was useless.

He was sure he never had looked like Qrow does. He was also sure that Qrow could not be allowed anywhere near a battlefield. Jaune had no idea how to fix this.

“I…I’m going inside. Ren, Nora…stay here…please.”

Jaune was sure whatever was inside would be bad, he rather see it and describe it for his team, than subject them to it.

He walks in through the door of the small building. It’s mostly deserted with several doors going into different places. He doesn’t have to ask where the rest of team RWBY is…he just follows the sobs.

He stops in front of a door, and hesitates for a second. There’s a part of him that wants to run, get out of there and never come back, if he doesn’t look inside the room he will never know. The other part understands even if he doesn’t look inside, he can’t outrun this. No matter how painful or destructive this will be, Jaune needs to go inside.

He opens the door and regrets his decision.

The floor is covered in rose petals, white ash, and blood. The room stinks of roses and death. Weiss sits across from him on the floor, sobbing into Ruby’s cloak, while Blake tries and fails to hold Yang. Blake is sobbing her heart out. Yang is on her knees looking at Ruby’s bloody broach like she can’t understand what it means.

Jaune knows without a shadow of a doubt Yang is still in shock. She can’t process what she’s seeing, so she has shut down.

His stomach turns violently and he throws up. He hasn’t throw up that badly since he started in Beacon and Ruby gave him the nickname of Vomit Boy.

His eyes sting and tears pour out of him.

The room looks at him, but no one speaks.

The blood.

The smell.

The roses.

Ruby was here, but Jaune is almost certain Ruby didn’t get out of here alive. Yet, there is no body. Where is she? Did Cinder reduce her to ash? Did Salem take her? A thousand questions go through his mind. They stop when he hears a whimper.

Yang’s head looks up to him, her eyes focuses on him. It’s like she is seeing him for the first time. She comes out of shock.

Her eyes start tearing up, her all body shakes, and she starts whimpering.

Then…like Qrow had done earlier today Yang lets out a horrifying scream.

As long as Jaune lived he would never forget the scream of agony that Yang had let out.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello!  
> Final chapter! It’s from Jaune’s POV because I couldn’t pick one of team RWBY girls to do it. Qrow was in the running for a bit, but I wanted someone who wasn’t affected by Summer’s death (It also cut of Yang). So I went with Jaune.
> 
> I took them off the most wanted list, because with Salem in the sky it feels weird having the heroes as wanted. Ironwood might have gone off the deep end on the final episodes, but I don’t think he went stupid (or at least I hope it).
> 
> About the missing body…well to be honest in an early draft of the story I had planned for Salem to feel Cinder’s death (due to the Grimm arm) and find Ruby’s body. It would lead into her taking Ruby and using Emerald to lure the others into their deaths.
> 
> I decided against doing it in the fic, because the objective was to write a dark parallel between Ruby and Summer, not the destruction of remnant. Still if a few of you are wondering it would end badly…like the rest of this fic.
> 
> Thank you for reading this and stick with it to the end. Beware the mistakes and be nice in the comments.  
> Blood Wolf

**Author's Note:**

> Hello!  
> This is my first Fic in this fandom, but I’ve long wanted to write something like this. Without spoiling anything, I can tell you this Fic will be on the darker side. If this is not your cup of tea get out, now.  
> This Fic is going on a current headcanon I have that the rest of Team RWBY and JNR didn’t know Blake and Yang went to see Robyn until after they did it. It’s because I find it weird them being alone, no one mentioning the meeting, and Ruby’s and Weiss’s reactions when Ironwood brings it up seems to be one of surprise. I might be wrong, but that’s why it’s a headcanon.  
> I will update this either on Friday or Saturday. I don’t know if there will be a chapter this Friday/Saturday, since I’m posting one now, but from then on there will be one. This Fic is five chapters long, they are plan and written. I just need to edit them.  
> Fair warning, I’m dyslexic and don’t have a beta, so there might be mistakes. You can point them out as long as you are nice.  
> Thank you for reading this. Beware the mistakes and be nice in the comments.  
> Blood Wolf


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